It’s official now, defending champions Mumbai Indians will start the season against Super Kings of Chennai with a grand opening clash on September 19 in Abu Dhabi.
The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League (IPL) publishes the complete accessories for the Dream11 IP league stage… https://t.co/zmou8qazAy
– ANI (@ANI) 1599390893000
After the first match of the tournament on Saturday, Dubai will host its first game on Sunday with Delhi Capitals facing Kings XI Punjab, followed by the third match on Monday between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“IPL’s stock will move to Sharjah on Tuesday, September 22, where the Rajasthan Royals will host Chennai Super Kings,” a BCCI press release said.
There will be 10 double headers and the first match will start at 3:30 PM IST and 2:00 PM United Arab Emirates time.
All matches for the night will start at 7:30 PM IST and 6:00 PM UAE time. In total, 24 matches will be played in Dubai, 20 in Abu Dhabi and 12 in Sharjah.
Playoff venues and the IPL 2020 final will be announced later.
IPL 2020 takes place in biosafety bubbles in the UAE and all players and support staff are regularly tested.
The upcoming 53-day edition is by far the longest in league history.
The schedule was delayed after 13 Chennai Super Kings camp staff members tested positive for the dreaded virus.
Also, due to different quarantine rules in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the IPL operations team took the time to finalize the schedule.
Under IPL rules, the defending champions and last year’s runner-up meet at the tournament opener. The same will happen this year after concerns about the Chennai Super Kings preparation were erased with their first practice session in Dubai on Friday.
CSK was the latest franchise to hit the nets after getting through the final rounds of COVID-19 testing.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and all the other CSK players except the COVID-19-affected duo of Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaikwad began training on Friday.
With Deepak and Ruturaj testing positive last week along with 11 members of the CSK contingent, the team was forced to delay their training plan after completing the six-day quarantine, including three tests, upon arrival on August 21.
The virus-free players had to undergo three additional tests before starting their training on Friday. Infected players are quarantined for 14 days.
This year’s IPL was originally scheduled to run from March 29 to May 24, but was postponed just two weeks before the tournament started due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Then, as the number of cases increased, the league was postponed indefinitely, but the postponement of the T20 World Cup cleared the decks for the league to take place in the September-November window.
In video: IPL 2020: Mumbai Indians to challenge Chennai Super Kings in opening match
.
