Franchise-based cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League (IPL), will begin on Saturday, six months after it was scheduled to start, amid the global coronavirus pandemic. The tournament will be unique, for one, it won’t have an opening ceremony, owing to restrictions in place due to CVOID-19. The tournament, which is expected to be a morale booster for Indians, will not have any cheerleaders either, respecting social distancing norms.
The opening match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will take place in an empty Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, as part of the new normal.
CSK has won the tournament thrice under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. A lot of focus this year would be on Dhoni, especially since he announced retirement from international cricket on August 15. Dhoni would be returning to international cricket after a year as his last international match was the World Cup final in 2019 in England.
Defending champions, Mumbai Indians under Rohit Sharma’s leadership are a favourite to win the cup as well. They have won the tournament four times before.
The match will begin at 7.30 IST and 6 pm local time. The toss will take place 30 minutes before the match and it will be telecast live on the Star Sports 1 HD/SD, Star Sports 1 Hindi HD/SD channels.
