The eight Indian Premier League (IPL) teams are in the final stages of preparation before boarding their respective fights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
While there is still ambiguity over the exact travelling schedule of the teams, it has been reported that all the outfits will leave between August 20 and 23 via chartered flights.
Delhi Capitals (DC) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are likely to fly out together in a chartered flight from Mumbai on August 23, while Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will leave on August 21.
“All our Indian players and support staff will be travelling together from Chennai after our scheduled camp (scheduled to be held from August 16-20),” CSK CEO, Kasi Viswanathan, was quoted as saying in Sporstar. The players will be tested once before they reach Chennai, and on arrival, there would be two further tests.
Mumbai Indians (MI) have already started training sessions for their domestic players in the outskirts of Mumbai, and it is believed that the team will leave for the UAE on August 21.
The players and support staff of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), on the other hand, is likely to leave from Mumbai on August 20-21 via separate chartered flights.
Bollywood actress Preity Zinta co-owned Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) are yet to finalise a date between August 21 and 22.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) might be the last team to fly out of India from Bengaluru, preferably on August 22 or 23. However, before that, their players will reach Bengaluru this week and stay in quarantine for a week in a five-star hotel. According to the reports in Cricinfo, all the players and the support staff have tested negative in the first round of COVID-19 testing.
The 13th season of the IPL is scheduled to be played from September 19 to November 10. There will be ten double-headers this year. Night matches will start at 19:30 IST instead of the 20:00 IST which had been the norm and the afternoon games at 15:30 IST.
