Mumbai. After the second leg was held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year, all preparations have been made for the homecoming of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This time apart from three stadiums in Mumbai, the league phase of IPL will be played in Pune. With 10 teams, IPL is ready to spread its color at home. This time two new teams in the form of Lucknow Supergiants and Gujarat Titans will make their IPL debut. However, the first match of this season will be played between defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and last year’s runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. The T20 World Cup is to be played in Australia this year and in such a situation, IPL will also decide the fate of some Indian players.
Challenge for pitch curators: BCCI got a tough lesson in 2021, when it had to postpone the tournament midway due to the outbreak of the Kovid-19 pandemic and later it had to be completed in the UAE. Keeping this in mind, at present the league stage matches will be held at three locations in Mumbai and Pune, so that there is no need to travel by air. In such a situation, it will be a challenge for the pitch curators to keep the pitches alive for two months, but there is every possibility of big scores in the tournament.
Home advantage for Mumbai: Mumbai Indians team will play at their home ground, but its captain Rohit Sharma has made it clear that he will not get any extra benefit from it. However, players like Suryakumar Yadav, Kieron Pollard, Jasprit Bumrah and Ishan Kishan would like to take full advantage of the favorable conditions.
What will change the fate of RCB: At Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), all eyes will be on Virat Kohli, who has stepped down as captain. Faf du Plessis, who has been associated with CSK for a long time, has been given the captaincy of RCB. RCB have not won the IPL title even once. Now it has to be seen whether the fate of the team changes under his leadership.
This may be Dhoni’s last season: This could be the last season of the veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the IPL. He left the captaincy before the first match and handed over the command to Ravindra Jadeja. All eyes will be on Jadeja as he has to lead a team that Dhoni has been leading since 2008 and is a four-time champion.
They will also be tested: This time the leadership skills of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and Mayank Agarwal will also be tested. Iyer will lead KKR, while Rahul will take charge of Lucknow and Hardik Gujarat. Agarwal has been made the captain of Punjab. Iyer has previously captained Delhi Capitals, while Rahul has captained Punjab Kings. For Hardik, this will be his first experience of captaincy in the IPL. His progress will also be closely watched by the Indian team management as he lost his place in the national team for not bowling regularly.
Spectators will come to the stadium and watch the match: After the situation of Kovid-19 in the country is under control, cricket lovers will get a chance to enjoy the matches by visiting the stadium for the first time since 2019. All IPL matches will be played in India and 25 percent of the spectators of the stadium’s capacity will be able to watch it in the stadium.
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