The fiery Australian pacer, Pat Cummins reckons that the Indian Premier League (IPL) can be the replacement for the Twenty20 World Cup if it is delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to begin in Australia in October, the T20 competition’s start is looking increasingly unlikely amid virus-related travel restrictions.

However, Cummins is optimistic that the World Cup and Australian tour of England would go ahead, but if those were canceled at least a return of T20 could be a boost to the game. He said, “You have millions and millions of people watching that tournament around the world… potentially even more after a long break off cricket. There’s a lot of reasons why I would want it to go ahead but the main one is it’s a great tournament.”

ALSO READ: BJP MLA Urges Virat Kohli To Divorce Anushka Sharma?

The coronavirus forced the cash-rich T20 league to postpone its March 29 start date and organizers were already reportedly eyeing a return around October. Cummins said he was eager to return to play after nearly a ten-waeek break from the sport.

Cummins added, “I’m just about ready to get back into it and ready for that next tour.”

A decision on whether to postpone the World Cup could come from Thursday’s ICC board meeting over concerns of flying 16 teams into Australia during the crisis.

ALSO READ: KKR and CSK lift their respective IPL titles OTD 6 years apart

Currently, India is going through a nationwide lockdown. Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus positive patients in India went past 153000 with almost 4400 people losing their lives on Wednesday, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Almost the entire is in a lockdown due to the scare of the ever-escalating situation concerning the World Health Organisation-recognized pandemic that is the Coronavirus. Everything- schools, colleges, airports, railway stations, gyms, sporting events, movies, offices- have been put under lockdown as the world continues to self-isolate in order to control the pandemic.