It’s that time of the year again. It’s time for the Indian Premier League (IPL) – the biggest T20 league in the world – which gets underway at the biggest cricket stadium – the Narendra Modi Stadium – in Ahmedabad on Friday.
For close to two months now, the prime time slots will exclusively be dominated by cricketing action featuring the world’s leading cricketers and the remaining part of the day would be spent on discussions on and around the league. Everyone, from teams to websites to TV channels to advertising and social media agencies, will be operating in powerplay mode to capitalise on the T20 extravaganza.
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For the players, the stakes continue to be higher as some would be gunning to cement their slots in the playing XIs of both their IPL team and country and the teams would be itching to get on the park in front of packed stadia as the tournament returns to the home-and-away format. While some teams pressed the reset button at the mini-auction last year, some preferred to stick to their core and fill in the blanks, if any.
The injuries
The build-up to the season, however, has not been pleasant for many teams who have been on the receiving end of ill-timed and unfortunate injuries. Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders are the worst-hit as the two will be without the services of their regular skippers Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer (still not ruled out of the entire season but likely to miss most of the first half) respectively. Mumbai Indians will be without their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah. Jonny Bairstow, ruled out due to a leg injury, won’t open the innings for Punjab Kings.
Also read – IPL 2023, GT vs CSK: Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings All You Need to Know
For Royal Challengers Bangalore, Josh Hazlewood and Rajat Patidar are the two major injury concerns and it remains to be seen how Glenn Maxwell goes after coming from a long injury lay-off. Two exciting seamers from last season Mohsin Khan (Lucknow Super Giants) and Mukesh Choudhary (Chennai Super Kings) will be missing from the action too. While Choudhary has been ruled out of the tourney, LSG still expects Mohsin to feature at some stage of the competition.
Plenty of firsts
Even if the build-up hasn’t been ideal for many sides, it will be a season of many firsts. The Impact Player rule will be tried out for the first time in the IPL and teams can now pick their XIs after the toss. All captains are excited to see how it goes and it will certainly add a new dimension to the league. The new teams LSG and GT will have a taste of home-and-away format for the first time in the IPL as they played in a controlled environment last time around due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) Nitish Rana and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) Aiden Markram will have first taste of IPL captaincy when the two lead their respective sides in the upcoming edition. While Iyer’s injury forced KKR to make the change, SRH pressed ‘reset’ at the mini-auction last year and have chosen Markram to be the man who will anchor the new-look ship.
The usual questions
Yes, there will be plenty of firsts this time around but the usual questions will continue to garner most of the attention. Can RCB finally win the title? Can Sanju Samson put up a consistent show with the bat? Will Dhoni’s magic continue to work at CSK? Does KL Rahul have what it takes to set the stage on fire again?
We are likely to get the answers to most of these questions over the next couple of months but one thing is for sure that there will be no dearth of quality cricket featuring top players from across the globe.
World Cup watch
The season will have extra interest from both boards and fans as it’s a World Cup year. It is a different format but the form and fitness of top players will attract a lot of intention. For India, a close watch will remain on the World Cup probables and the last thing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would want right now is a last-minute injury that alters their plans for the marquee event later this year.
The Indian cricket board has already put a plan in place to monitor the workload of their 50-over and Test regulars and have also instructed the franchises to manage them properly. It’s a big year for the Indian cricket team as they play the World Test Championship final after the IPL, following it up with the Asia Cup before turning their attention to the World Cup at home.
If the board monitors the fitness of the ODI and Test regulars, the players on the fringe would be looking to cash in on the IPL and put a strong foot forward for the World Cup. With Iyer’s injury and disappointing returns from Suryakumar Yadav, the Indian middle-order wears a fragile look and there certainly is an opening to grab there. Can Samson do that? Or will we see a new face taking the cricketing world by storm?
Before the cricketing storm hits the stadia and TV and mobile screens, heaven opened up in Ahmedabad on the eve of the match and forced the players of both GT and CSK to train indoors. They are, however, certain to return outdoors on Friday as the forecast makes good reading and will allow a blockbuster opening to the biggest T20 festival in the world.
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