All eyes focus on MS Dhoni as Chennai lock horns with Mumbai in opening experience

The thirteenth edition of the Indian T-20 league is set to start in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, almost a half year after it was uncertainly deferred in the midst of the danger of the Covid pandemic and the subsequent inaccessibility of the unfamiliar players. Defending champions Mumbai will take on earlier year’s other participants Chennai in the opening match of the competition tomorrow.

The two teams will confront each other after a sensational 2019 season last where Mumbai had beaten Chennai by one race to lift the trophy for the record fourth time.

Everyone’s eyes will be on previous Indian captain MS Dhoni, who will play his first serious match almost 14 months after India’s annihilation to New Zealand in the semi finals of the 2019 cricket World Cup. Dhoni had declared his retirement from the worldwide cricket a month ago, and he might be playing his last Indian T-20 association.

In front of the competition, Chennai group had confronted several difficulties, first when two of its players had tried positive for Covid after arriving at Dubai, and later when its headliners Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh had pulled out of the competition refering to individual reasons. Raina has been a column for Chennai in the center request throughout the long term yet his choice of not playing in the BCCI’s T20 group has left a tremendous void in the group.

Nonetheless, in what has come as a major alleviation for Chennai, the establishment’s CEO Kasi Viswanathan has said that their headliners Sam Curran and Josh Hazlewood will be accessible for Saturday’s match against safeguarding champions Mumbai if their test reports come negative on Friday. The two abroad players from Australia and England will just need to isolate for 36 hours from the hour of their appearance in the UAE before they could join the Chennai camp

Mumbai, too had confronted difficulties when its star pacer Lasith Malinga had mentioned inaccessibility for the competition, refering to individual reasons. In a virtual question and answer session with lead trainer Mahela Jayawardene, Mumbai’s captain Rohit Sharma had conceded on Thursday that the group will miss the administration of Malinga.

Malinga was instrumental in Mumbai’s success a year ago, when he guarded simple eight runs in the last over of the period’s last match against Chennai. Mumbai has roped in Australian speedster James Pattinson as Malinga’s substitution.

The Mumbai captain had affirmed he will open the batting in the competition.

The initial match will be played at UAE’s capital Abu Dhabi at 7:30 pm (IST). Dubai will have its first game among Delhi and Punjab on Sunday. The competition’s last match will be played on November 10.