On Friday, the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) conducted its first outdoor training session and captain Virat Kohli was looking thrilled to have stepped onto the field after the forced break of five months. Other teams, including the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), have also set up outdoor camps ahead of the IPL 2020.
RCB skipper Kohli took to social media to express his happiness as he wrote on Instagram: “Been 5 months since the last time I stepped onto the field. Felt like 6 days when I got into the nets. The great first session with the boys @royalchallengersbangalore.”
Consequently, all eight IPL teams had left for UAE last week and after reaching the Gulf country that went through a mandatory 6-day quarantine period ahead of the start of the IPL 2020 season, scheduled to be commencing on September 19. Six out of eight franchises, including the RCB, have set up their base in Dubai and have finally started outdoor training.
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The 13th edition of the IPL starts will be played across 53 days but the BCCI hasn’t released the final schedule of the tournament.
Due to the increasing cases of the coronavirus pandemic, all sporting events were either suspended or indefinitely postponed all around the world in March. In fact, the 2020 edition of the cash-rich league, which was originally scheduled to begin on March 29, was indefinitely postponed by the Indian board.
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However, over the last couple of months slowly and steadily sporting events around the world have been taking their steps towards resumption returned to the fore and the IPL, too, marked its return as the Men’s T20 World Cup was canceled this year by the ICC. With too many COVID-19 cases in India, India’s biggest money-spinner was moved outside the country and UAE was, hence, chosen as the venue.
