Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has opined on the reported requests from other franchises regarding Mumbai Indians getting to play at their home ground, Wankhede Stadium in the IPL 2022. He added that it has been denied.
However, the BCCI has announced the schedule for the league phase of IPL 2022 on Sunday. The 70 league games will take place across three venues in Mumbai and the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune as well. While reflecting on the schedule in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra stated that the Mumbai Indians have not been kept away from their home ground amid the COVID situation.
He added: “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.”
Aakash Chopra again explained: “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.”
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Meanwhile, the Wankhede Stadium surface has always seen matches having high-scoring ones and is generally more helpful to the pacers as compared to the spinners as well. And, Mumbai Indians have a quality pace attack alongside big-hitting batters as well.
Aakash Chopra shared: “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 neighboring 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 also feels the South African players will have to make a tough choice between IPL 2022 and national duty as well. His comments came as South Africa are scheduled to play Bangladesh in ODI and Test series in March and April, the same time with the IPL 2022.
He said: “South Africa have said that they will tell the players that they have the option, let’s test your loyalty to the nation. Very difficult question to address because the ODI series will start on March 18, the IPL is starting on March 26 and there is a three-day quarantine before that.”
The veteran has also highlighted that the Lucknow Super Giants might have to play without Quinton de Kock at the start of the tournament. However, De Kock is likely to open alongside KL Rahul in IPL 2022 as well.
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Aakash Chopra explained: “The three ODIs are on March 18, 20 and 23. Quinton de Kock is an important member here, so he might not be available for the first match. Lucknow Super Giants – think about it, unless he decides to miss those ODIs.”
“David Miller is also in the ODI team – it is extremely necessary for the Gujarat Titans to play him but he might not be available at the start. The problems increase after that, there are two Test matches – the first one starts on March 31 and the second ends on April 12. That means Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram – all of them are part of the IPL but will probably not be available at the start if they choose to play the Test matches,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
