The 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will start from Saturday to bring smiles on the faces of cricket fans around the world amid the fear of Coronavirus epidemic, once again with Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s calm attitude, Virat Kohli’s aggression and Rohit Sharma’s power hitting.
Everyone’s eyes will be on the defending champion Rohit’s Mumbai Indians, as they will face Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in the first match.
Due to rising cases of COVID-19 pandemic in India, the tournament is being played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and there will be no spectators in the field. This year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) will be a very special one for the viewers who are hungry for cricket action in these difficult circumstances.
This season in the IPL, double-headers will be played only 10 times. On the day double-header, the first match will start at 3:30 pm Indian time and the second match will start at 7:30 pm.
All the matches of the evening will be played from 7.30 pm Indian time. 24 matches will be played in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12 in Sharjah. Abu Dhabi will host five matches at 3:30 pm, Dubai four matches and Sharjah one match.
Let’s have a look at the pitch report of Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi and the weather of the city where the IPL opening match will be played.
Weather Report
There is no chance of interruption due to rain in the IPL 2020 matches to be held at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Due to high heat, the evening temperature will be around 35 degree Celsius and the level of humidity will be very high.
Pitch Report
The Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi has hosted 45 T20 matches in the last ten years, with the top score being 225/7. The pitch has been good for the batsmen, but spin bowlers often dominate the batsmen here.
The average run rate in T20 matches played in Abu Dhabi is 7, indicating that any total more than 150 runs can be chased easily.
Our Pick
We pick Mumbai Indians (MI) to win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the opening fixture of the tournament. Mumbai has got numbers over Chennai. But we cannot rule out Chennai Super Kings at all.
Possible Playing XI
Mumbai Indians
Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Chennai Super Kings
Shane Watson, Faf Du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Piyush Chawla, Deepak Chahar, Imran Tahir
