Excitement in the air for IPL Saturday but challenges remain amid Covid

It takes some ambition — call it desperation if you like — and organisation to host a tournament of this scale in the middle of a global health crisis. Compared with India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can be classified as something of a coronavirus success story: The country has reported around 81,000 cases, with just over 400 fatalities.

Even so, staging cricket aided by a bio-bubble is an onerous challenge. Players cannot break quarantine and will be regularly tested, which will be made considerably difficult by the constant travelling and the awfully long duration — September 19 to November 10 — of the competition. While cricket returned in early July with the West Indies touring England, the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be the first tournament to feature multiple teams.

Other sports have shown that smooth transitions are possible. Many of the European football leagues successfully finished their seasons — albeit in front of empty stadiums — post the lockdown, with only a handful of positive cases and almost no cancellations. The recently concluded US Open, which saw Dominic Thiem win his maiden Grand Slam, also managed pretty well; the only exception being the women’s doubles pair of Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic having to withdraw after coming into contact with Benoît Paire, the Frenchman who tested positive just before the tournament began.

Perhaps the IPL will look a lot like the NBA, which is in the midst of finishing the 2019-20 season at Disney World in Florida, where the property’s ample number of courts, restaurants, hotels and leisure facilities are keeping the players comfortable and entertained.

Pitch report

Much like India, tracks in the UAE have traditionally been dry and friendly towards batsmen. Since most of them will be fresh, expect some high scores in the early part of the competition. At the same time, pitches will slow down as the IPL progresses, with the one in Dubai — if you were to go by historical evidence — likely to dish out some low-scoring games. Of the other two venues, Sharjah is notoriously flat, while also being the smallest. Abu Dhabi offers some bounce, but also has the tendency to get a tad sluggish to bat on. All of which, given the fact that the weather will be similar to what we see in India during the usual IPL months of April and May, points to only one thing: That spinners will have a big say.

The wrist spinner

In a cricket sense, there is very little that can match the recent modishness of the wrist spinner. Once a vanishing breed, the wrist spinner is now seen as a must-have, making the finger spinner increasingly obsolete. In an era of ultra-aggressive batsmanship, this preference is understandable: Wrist spinners can derive more from non-turning wickets; they possess more variety and come loaded with — especially left-arm bowlers like Kuldeep Yadav — a fair share of “mystery”. Captains will continue to rely on them for their wicket-taking, but it’s also worth noting that off-spinners are generally more suited to slower surfaces, which is likely to be the case at the deep-end of the tournament in the UAE. Not to mention that Sunil Narine and Ravichandran Ashwin, among the eminent survivors of the wrist-spinner boom, have always done well in the IPL.

The return of Dhoni

When the Chennai Super Kings take on the Mumbai Indians in the opening game on Saturday, it will be the fans’ first sighting of Mahendra Singh Dhoni on a cricket field in 439 days. Now, that may not seem like a lot, but for loyalists of the Chennai skipper, the hollowness of the past year has been something akin to a family bereavement.

Now retired from the national side, it’ll be fun to see the Dhoni of old: A batting mind bereft of stodgy instinct, willing to embrace the recklessness of its belligerent past. Despite doubts about his batting, Dhoni, the captain, will continue to be an irresistible force, inspiring and cajoling his players in the silent, dispassionate manner that has always been his hallmark. In 2019, Dhoni’s men, many of them in their dotage, forged an unlikely title triumph. Last year, they lost a final they should have ideally won. This time, even without Suresh Raina, they will once again fancy their chances.

Can RCB break the duck?

You sometimes wonder if Virat Kohli’s final legacy will rest not on what he does for the Indian team, but on whether he can somehow find a way to make Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) IPL champions. It’s an enduring question, one that even the great Kohli has been unable to find an answer to.

RCB finished eighth last year, losing six of their first eight games. Over the years, in spite of possessing strong teams, RCB have been woefully inept at snapping losing streaks. A lot of T20 cricket is about momentum, and RCB simply haven’t generated enough of it, often falling apart while defending big totals. For this season, the fast bowling department looks a concern, but that is somewhat offset by the spinning options that Kohli has: The likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa and Washington Sundar.

Any team with Kohli and AB de Villiers will have more than a puncher’s chance, but Mike Hesson and his staff must find a more robust way to bounce back from defeats. They are unlikely to win it this time as well, but an improved performance from last year looks to be in the offing.

MVP candidates

You can be forgiven to think that this is a tough one to predict. The IPL, after all, attracts the best talent from all over the world — there are so many fabulous players to choose from. But if last season is anything to go by, you can’t help but pick Andre Russell as the favourite for this year’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award as well. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Russell has been the most destructive batsman in the history of the IPL, his eye-popping penchant for sixes perhaps only matched by compatriot Chris Gayle. Add to that his contribution with the ball, and you get an all-round monster of a cricketer. But form in cricket can be fickle and Russell has had issues with fitness in the past.

Which is not to say this is entirely a one-horse race. Kohli, Narine, K L Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes — depending on the Englishman’s availability — are all capable of landing one of those all-time great seasons.

Finally, who’s going to win it?

Given the nature of T20 cricket and the richness of quality on show, this is always a tough one to call. But over the years, some teams have cracked the consistency code, displaying the kind of mentality that is needed to excel in the game’s shortest format. Mumbai Indians are top of that list, winning twice in the last three seasons. It’s safe to assume that Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings will be the most likely contenders to the crown this season. If you’re one for surprises, do watch out for the Delhi Capitals, who, under captain Shreyas Iyer and coach Ricky Ponting, surpassed expectations by finishing third in 2019. With a franchise that has most bases covered, they might go one better this time.