The richest league in cricket launches with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru hosting the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where June’s title party turned to tragedy a day after Bengaluru’s first IPL crown.
Eleven supporters aged between 14 and 29 died outside the stadium in a crush.
The club, sold on Tuesday for 166.6 billion rupees (R30-billion) to an Indian-US consortium, will leave 11 seats permanently empty at the stadium while players will wear black armbands.
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Virat Kohli, who has retired from Tests and T20Is, guided RCB to their maiden title on the 18th attempt and shows no sign of slowing down aged 37.
“He will be hungrier than ever, especially after lifting the IPL trophy last season,” former India pace bowler Irfan Pathan told host broadcaster JioHotstar.
“He will have the same kind of passion when he comes back this season. He will want to lift the trophy once again.”
The spotlight will also be on teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Suryavanshi, who turns 15 on Friday, will open the batting for the Rajasthan Royals this season.
The prodigy starred for India in their U19 World Cup win in Harare last month, smashing a record-breaking 175 off 80 balls in the final against England.
Suryavanshi burst onto the IPL scene last year as a 14-year-old, hitting a six off the first ball he faced on his debut.
A few days later he romped to a 35-ball century, the second fastest in IPL history.
The Royals and fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal are keen to shield Suryavanshi from the glare of publicity.
“There will be hype and pressure naturally,” said captain Riyan Parag. “Jaiswal is more than capable of handling that. For Vaibhav, the role will be just to go, hit, and not to worry.”
India’s T20 World Cup win produced new heroes, including opener-wicketkeeper Sanju Samson and all-rounder Shivam Dube, who are both with five-time winners the Chennai Super Kings.
Samson, named Player of the World Cup after his 321 runs in India’s last three matches propelled them to the title, begins his first season with Chennai.
Two-time World Cup-winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 44, will continue to defy age in CSK’s yellow, batting at No 7 under skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad.
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Some overseas stars will miss the start, including Australia’s pace trio Pat Cummins (Hyderabad), Mitchell Starc (Delhi) and Josh Hazlewood (RCB) because of fitness concerns and workload management.
England’s Ben Duckett (Delhi) has withdrawn to focus on international cricket, leaving him facing a potential two-season IPL ban.
The final is scheduled for 31 May, but only the fixtures for the first two weeks have been announced because of elections in several Indian states.
– AFP