The Indian Premier League 2019 is around the corner and the franchise has started their preparations ahead of yet another season. The T20 extravaganza will kick off from March 23 in Chennai as the opening game is set to be played between defending champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bangalore at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Meanwhile, Chennai based franchise has started their preparations for the event as local players have joined the team camp. The other players are expected to join the team before the March 16 as few are busy on national duty while others are playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019.
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Leg-spinner Karn Sharma, Tamil Nadu’s wicketkeeper-batsman N Jagadeesan, K M Asif and Chaitanya Bishnoi, among others, took part in today’s session.
“It feels great to be in Chennai. Last year we only played one match, so very excited to be playing more matches here this time around. I’m really looking forward to it,” said the leg-spinner.
Sharma said it would be good to have a preparatory camp as it helps the team gel better. “Given that we have players from different cities and countries, a preparatory camp helps the team gel better as a unit, allows players to know and understand each other better, each other’s styles better,” he added.
With the India-Australia ODI series set to end on March 13 and the super league phase of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy set to conclude on March 14, the players would begin arriving subsequently.
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Chennai has won the IPL three times while they finished as the second-best four times. They have played nine seasons of IPL and featured in record seven finals. They missed two seasons after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) banned them for two years after their involvement in the wrongdoing.
CSK made a strongest possible return last year and defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final to lift the trophy for a record third time. They are still the only side to win consecutive IPL trophies.
