Supercharged by India’s home T20 World Cup victory, the Indian Premier League (IPL) returns to action on Saturday, but with somber memories of the 11 fans who perished in a stampede commemorating Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s victory last season.
The richest cricket league begins with RCB vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where a day after Bengaluru’s first IPL triumph, June’s title celebration descended into tragedy. Eleven fans, aged 14 to 29, perished in a stampede outside the stadium.
Eleven stadium seats will remain vacant after the club was sold to an Indian-US group on Tuesday for about Rs 16,706 crore, and players will don black armbands.
At the age of 37, Kohli, who has retired from Test and Twenty20 international cricket, led RCB to their first championship on their 18th attempt and shows no signs of slowing down.
“He will be hungrier than ever, especially after lifting the IPL trophy last season. He will have the same kind of passion when he comes back this season. He will want to lift the trophy once again,” former India pacer Irfan Pathan told host broadcaster JioHotstar.
Young batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will also be under the spotlight. Sooryavanshi, who turns 15 on Friday, will open for the Rajasthan Royals.
With a record-breaking 175 off 80 balls in the final against England, the prodigy starred for India in their U19 World Cup title victory in Harare last month.
At the age of 14, Sooryavanshi made his IPL debut last year by striking a six off the first ball he faced. A few days later, he smashed his way to the second-fastest hundred in IPL history off 35 balls.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and the Royals are eager to protect Sooryavanshi from the spotlight.
“There will be hype and pressure naturally. Jaiswal is more than capable of handling that. For Vaibhav, the role will be just to go, hit, and not to worry,” said Royals captain Riyan Parag.
New heroes from India’s T20 World Cup victory are opener-wicketkeeper Sanju Samson and all-rounder Shivam Dube, both of whom play for the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Samson, who starts his first season with CSK, was named player of the T20 World Cup after his 321 runs in India’s final three games helped them win the championship.
Under captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, 44-year-old Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a two-time World Cup winner, will continue to defy age while batting at number seven for CSK.
Due to fitness issues and workload management, a few international stars, such as Australia’s pace trio Pat Cummins (SRH), Mitchell Starc (DC), and Josh Hazlewood (RCB), will miss the start.
England cricketer Ben Duckett of DC may be banned from the IPL for two seasons after withdrawing to concentrate on international cricket.
Due to elections in several Indian states, only the fixtures for the first two weeks have been announced, despite the final being scheduled for May 31.
