There are certain chances that the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 will be taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year due to the coronavirus crisis in India. It will take time for the teams to get acclimatize with the new playing conditions in a new country, even though it will be hosting the 8 franchises for the second time after 2014.

In 2014, UAE hosted the first 20 matches of the season due to the general elections in India, so conditions won’t be completely alien to the teams and players this time around. Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra, who has now become an analyst, feels getting used to the heat in the Emirates will possess a huge challenge for the players.

ALSO READ: Marnus Labuschagne Reveals His Learnings From Virat Kohli

Talking about the same on his Youtube channel, Chopra said, “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.”

He further added, “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 a lot of double-headers with the league phase to be completed in 5 weeks. In double-headers, however pleasant it might be, it is after all the heat of the middle east. So, batsmen might get dehydrated.”

However, Aakash Chopra also went on to express that the shifting can be a blessing in disguise for franchises like Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), who might enjoy playing on the bigger grounds in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah.

ALSO READ: Aakash Chopra Disagree With Gautam Gambhir On MS Dhoni

Explaining the same, Chopra said, “Batting conditions would not have much of an impact. RCB for example, because when the grounds are big your bowling is not exposed that much even if it is weak. 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.”