With ICC officially announcing that the T20 World Cup will not take place this year, a window is open for the BCCI to organise Indian Premier League in 2020 around September-October. According to IPL chairman Brijesh Patel, the board is mulling to host the IPL in the UAE. More details on the same will come out after IPL’s governing council meeting which is set to take place by next week.
Now, if IPL takes place in the UAE, how would it affect the tournament? How will teams fare in conditions which can be expected to be extremely hot and humid? Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra believes that the players have to battle with heat and dehydration.
“There will be no problem although they might have to fight a little bit with the heat. For now, the weather is good. Let’s be fair, UAE experiences a lot of heat. But September and October are still the pleasant months,” Chopra said in a video on his Youtube channel ‘Aakash Vani’.
“The problem I am seeing is that if the IPL starts on 26 September and ends on 7 November, it is about 6 weeks including the final week of playoffs, there might be lot of double-headers with the league phase to be completed in 5 weeks,” he added.
“In double-headers, however pleasant it might be, it is after all the heat of the middle east. So, batsmen might get dehydrated,” the cricketer-turned commentator added.
Speaking about which teams could benefit, he went on to add that owing to the large size of the grounds, teams with poor bowling records could reap the most advantages. “RCB for example, because when the grounds are big your bowling is not exposed that much even if it is weak. RCB I think might actually do well,” he said.
“You have got teams who have a lot of good spinners, so Chennai Super Kings will once again be the super kings.” Even Kings XI Punjab, the place suits them a lot as well since Maxwell plays very well there,” he added.
“Overall if we see, batsmen will not face much problems although they have to be careful about the heat because there will be lot of double-headers,” the former India batsman further said.
