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Cricket Players'One team will actually benefit slightly': Aakash gives his verdict on Mumbai Indians getting home advantage at Wankhede
The upcoming IPL season will have 10 teams with Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans as new additions.
The much-awaited schedule of the impending Indian Premier League (IPL) schedule was finally released on Sunday. The lucrative T20 league is set to return home after being played in the United Arab Emirates because of the coronavirus pandemic. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will start their title defence against last year's runners-up Kolkata Knight Riders on March 26. It will a replay of the previous year's final where MS Dhoni's men defeated Kolkata to win their fourth title in the 14th edition of the tournament.
The upcoming IPL season will have 10 teams with Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans as new additions. The new teams will feature in 70 league matches and four playoffs in 65 days before the final on May 29. But the venues of the tournament have been limited to just three cities.
Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune will host the games after India witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases earlier this year. The 70 games have been split across three venues including the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. But does that give an unfair advantage to five-time champions Mumbai Indians?
Cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra feels Mumbai is the only franchise that didn't have to make any alteration to its strategy for the season. There was a reservation from other franchises to not allow Mumbai Indians to play games at their home ground Wankhede but Chopra feels the Rohit Sharma-led side playing at the other two venues wouldn't have made any difference.
"The attempt has been made to give all teams equal matches at the venues. There is a report that an objection was raised by teams that Mumbai should not be given a single match at the Wankhede but that reservation has been kept aside."
"They are the only team whose auction strategy is not different for this year and the coming years. Mumbai is the only franchise that is not affected. They will play all their matches here only and next year onwards as well. So there was a reservation from the franchises," said Chopra on his YouTube channel.
The former India batter also underlined Rajasthan Royals' plan to snap up Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal with Sawai Man Singh Stadium surface at the back of their mind.
"All other teams thought, of course, this year they will play here but CSK will go to Chennai, Kolkata will go to the Eden Gardens, Delhi to the Arun Jaitley Stadium, think about the Rajasthan Royals - Yuzi Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. So they also made their team with that viewpoint."
"You know what, whether you play at Wankhede or in the neighbouring Brabourne or DY Patil - they are all similar kinds of surfaces. All three places have the same red-soil pitches, this is the way it is. One team will actually benefit slightly," he further added.
The BCCI has also said that the schedule for the play-offs and the final to be played on May 29, would be announced later.
