As the date for the commencement of the Indian Premier League (IPL) gets closer, the excitement among both fans and players soars to its climax. While some parts of the world have already begun their cricketing activity, others are still processing its grief and ruminate over the lost lives and capitals. Sadly, India comes in the latter category.
However, for cricketers and those who owe their living to the game, gloomy days will soon become the thing of past. In just over a month’s time, IPL will begin in the foreign land of UAE between September 19 and November 10.
The franchises are leaving no stones unturned to build up the hype and hysteria. In one such instance, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) got involved in a funny banter on Twitter.
On August 10, a day also celebrated as ‘World Lion Day’, RR decided to flaunt Ben Stokes diabolical tattoos and challenged the cricketing fraternity to come up with a better tattoo.
Stokes has got a Lion family – Lion, Lioness and two cubs – tattoo engraved on his back in Māori design, representing his Maori heritage as the all-rounder originally hails from New Zealand.
“#WorldLionDay Name a better tattoo in cricket, we’ll wait. #HallaBol@benstokes38,” captioned the Rajasthan-based franchise.
Name a better tattoo in cricket, we'll wait. 😎#HallaBol | @benstokes38 pic.twitter.com/xBTTk3jSJG
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) August 10, 2020
While there were too many Twitter accounts seemed to be accepting the challenge, one which stood out is the response from KXIP.
KXIP shared a beastly picture of their own talisman Chris Gayle, who has got a majestic winged-lion tattoo etched on his chest.
KXIP wrote: “Hope we didn’t keep you waiting for too long #SaddaPunjab #WorldLionDay.”
Hope we didn’t keep you waiting for too long 😉#SaddaPunjab #WorldLionDay https://t.co/pGGU8nV9uc pic.twitter.com/p2zuHb8K8Y
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) August 10, 2020
Meanwhile, Gayle has withdrawn his name from CPL 2020 owing to personal reasons. He will be next seen in action donning KXIP jersey in the 2020 edition of the IPL.
On the other hand, Stokes too opted out of the last two matches of the ongoing England-Pakistan series as he has flown to his native country to meet his ill-father.
