The Indian Premier League returns on Saturday for its 15th season, with a slew of great names and two new franchises bringing the world’s wealthiest cricket competition to ten teams for the first time.
However, spectators in the cricket-crazed country would be limited to 25% capacity at first, with group games limited to four sites — one in Pune and three in Mumbai.
The locations for the three playoff matches and the final on May 29 are still to be determined.
International T20 legends like Australia’s David Warner and England’s Jos Buttler will return for two months of high-octane cricket, but major names like Ben Stokes and West Indies senior big-hitter Chris Gayle will be absent.
Because to the coronavirus epidemic, the clubs will be placed into two groups of five based on their past IPL records for a 70-match regular season that will be the first to be completed exclusively in India since 2019.
“This season is going to be with crowds and we are hoping to have full capacity soon,” Arun Dhumal, treasurer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), told AFP news agency.
“The new teams bring a lot of excitement and after the player auction, in a way, all the teams are new. There is a lot of new blood and we are hoping that it will be exciting for the players and the fans.”
The 10 teams splurged $75m to buy 204 players in last month’s auction with Mumbai Indians bringing back Ishan Kishan for a whopping $2m.
Gujarat Titans, owned by US venture capital firm CVC, and Lucknow Super Giants, funded by Indian entrepreneur Sanjiv Goenka, are the two new teams, who have a combined cost of $1.6 billion.
The Mumbai Indians, captained by Rohit Sharma, are the most successful IPL team, having won five titles in a row in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020.
The defending champions, Chennai Super Kings, are led by veteran former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and will play Kolkata Knight Riders, owned by Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
The two-month spectacle will feature 74 matches, with teams led by previous greats such as Australians Ricky Ponting and Tom Moody, New Zealand’s Stephen Fleming, and Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene.
Gujarat Titans have signed Afghanistan’s highly ranked spinner Rashid Khan, while England’s Jofra Archer, who missed the Ashes in Australia due to an elbow injury, may not be available for the Mumbai Indians.
Virat Kohli, the home superstar, will be under pressure after stepping down as India’s captain and facing a lean spell with the bat, having not scored an international century since November 2019.
After nine seasons of trying and failing to win the IPL title as the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore, “King Kohli” has stood down, with South African Faf du Plessis taking over.
“(Kohli) doesn’t look that confident but he also needs a bit of luck. I am sure you will enjoy the same Virat, batting very freely, very dominating,” Vijay Lokapally, a veteran journalist and a Kohli biographer, told AFP.
“And it’s good if we expect him to excel every time, it speaks for the respect he has in the cricket world.”
The event began in India in April of last year, but was forced to terminate a month later due to an increase of COVID-19 infections across the country.
Chennai Super Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders in the final on October 15 in Dubai, after the tournament resumed in September in the United Arab Emirates.
Due to the epidemic, the IPL will be held in the UAE in 2020.
