IPL 2020 To Commence On March 29 With Mumbai Indians Playing At Home – Report
Dec 30, 2019 at 9:39 PM
The 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is likely to begin from March 29. It was earlier reported that the cash-rich tournament will commence in the last week of March. The reigning champions Mumbai Indians will play the tourney’s opener at their home ground of Wankhede Stadium. It is generally noted that the defending champions play the first match of the season at their own den. Meanwhile, the IPL 2020 auction was recently held in Kolkata on 19th December.
If the IPL season gets underway from March 29, a lot of teams will not have the services of their overseas players. Players from England, Sri Lanka, Australia, and New Zealand would not be able to attend the first few matches due to national commitments.
Overseas players might miss the early phase of the season.
Australia and New Zealand will take on each other in a T20I series at the same time. The last match of the T20I series will take place on March 29 itself. Furthermore, Sri Lanka and England will also be locking horns in a Test series. The series between these two teams will end on March 31. Consequently, players from these four teams will miss the starting action of the IPL.
“I am told that the 2020 edition of the IPL will start on March 29 at Wankhede,” IANS quoted a Delhi Capitals official as saying.
Subsequently, almost all the IPL teams have urged the IPL governing council and the BCCI to start the cash-rich tournament in April as they want to have their full-strength team to take the ground. Meanwhile, the IPL 2019 had also kickstarted from March 23 when Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore had played the tournament opener.
Furthermore, the IPL franchises have requested IPL governing council to go back to the old format of doubleheaders throughout the tournament. Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders had broken the bank to buy Pat Cummins for a whopping price of INR 15.50. Thus, Cummins became the most expensive overseas player in IPL history.