The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to get underway on March 29 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with Mumbai Indians (MI) kicking off the campaign on their home ground against Delhi Capitals (DC).

Speaking to IANS, a DC official said that the starting date is set to be March 29 with defending champions MI playing the opener at Wankhede. He said, “I am told that the 2020 edition of the IPL will start on March 29 at Wankhede.”

This means that the teams playing the first couple of games will miss the services of the Australian, English and New Zeland foreign recruits as there will be two international series on at that point in time with Australia and New Zealand clashing in a T20I series that has the last game scheduled to be played on March 29 and the England-Sri Lanka Test series which ends on March 31.

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Speaking to IANS, a senior official of one of the franchises had earlier said that they were keeping fingers crossed that the IPL Governing Council will go back to the old format of having doubleheaders through the tournament and start around April 1.

Describing the scheduling, the official said, “See, while the Australia-New Zealand series ends with the final T20I being played on March 29, the second Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka technically ends only on March 31. In such a scenario, you start the season minus your big players and that isn’t a happy occasion. If we do start from April 1, the scenario looks so much better. Hopefully, the IPL GC will see what we are speaking about makes for a consideration.”

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But looks like the IPL Governing Council is keen on doing away with too many doubleheaders and wants to ensure that fans get the best of viewing time.