“RCB will fancy their chances if IPL happens in UAE,” opines Aakash Chopra

Chopra also talked about the heat and need for more double-headers in the tightly packed IPL 13.

Aakash Chopra picked RCB as favorites if IPL 2020 happens in UAE With the ICC postponing the T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia officially, the path has been cleared for the IPL to happen later this year. The BCCI was waiting for this confirmation from the ICC and now the richest T20 league may be played in Sept-Nov window.

The venue for the tournament is yet to be finalized, but the opinion is tilting in favor of UAE due to rising Coronavirus numbers in India, the preferred venue for BCCI.

And if the Indian Premier League 2020 is held in the UAE, cricket expert Aakash Chopra has opined that Royal Challenger Bangalore (RCB) led by Virat Kohli stand to gain the most.

The former KKR opener stated that the big grounds where your bowling won’t be exposed would favor a weak bowling side like Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) which features a strong batting lineup. 

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Batting conditions would not have much of an impact. In fact, certain teams may start feeling better. RCB for example, because when the grounds are big your bowling is not exposed that much even if it is weak. RCB I think might actually do well,” he said while speaking on his YouTube channel.

He also mentioned Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) as the other two franchises which might do well in those conditions. Chopra also named CSK and KXIP as other two favoritesA plethora of good spinners in the CSK team makes them favorites to win the tournament in UAE, along with KXIP given that they have strong hitters of the ball.

There will be no problem although they might have to fight a little bit with the heat. For now, the weather is good. Let’s be fair, UAE experiences a lot of heat. But September and October are still the pleasant months,” the 42-year-old further said.

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He also spoke about lots of doubleheaders in the tournament, if it follows the 26 September- 7 November window, which is about 6 weeks including the final week playoffs, there might be a lot of double-headers with the league phase to be concluded in five weeks.  

In double-headers, however pleasant it might be, it is after all the heat of the Middle East. So, batsmen might get dehydrated,” he ascertained.

 

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 21 Jul, 2020

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