XtraTime Web Desk: Former England captain and one of the legends of the game, Kevin Pietersen is hoping Delhi Capitals to do well and finally win their maiden IPL trophy. While leaving for UAE, Pietersen said, “Hope Delhi Capitals win”.
Pietersen was seen in the commentary box during the t20 series between England and Australia. After finishing his work, Pietersen will join the broadcasting team as he will be one of the commentators in this year’s IPL. Hence, Pietersen left the shores of Southampton and will be joining the rest of the commentators at Dubai.
The former England skipper posted a photo of himself on Instagram and captioned the post as: “From a bubble in the UK to a bubble in Dubai…! I love that we have cricket back and as always very excited about working on the @iplt20. Who’s winning? I hope Delhi.”
Pietersen has represented Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils and Rising Pune SuperGiants in the previous editions of the IPL.
Delhi Capitals looks fresh this year as few heavyweight names like Ravi Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane have joined the side. Even after having these senior players, Shreyas Iyer will be leading the team after having a good season last time around.
Last year’s champion, Mumbai Indians will be locking horns with Chennai Super Kings in the opening match of this year’s IPL which is scheduled to start on September 19th. Dubai will host 24 games, 20 matches will be hosted by Abu Dhabi while Sharjah will host 12 matches in the group stage.
The dates and venues for the playoff stages will be released later.
The opening match between the finalists of the 2019 edition will be played in Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The IPL 2020 will be played from September 19-November 10 in the UAE across three venues –Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.
There will be a total of 10 doubleheaders in this edition of the tournament. The evening matches will be played at 7:30 PM IST while the afternoon matches are due to start at 3:30 PM IST.
All the teams have already reached UAE to take part in the tournament and are currently undergoing training. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was the last team to begin training as they finally stepped on the field last week after their third round of COVID-19 tests.
With inputs from ANI