For the first time in the history of the Indian Premier League, an all-star fixture will be played by some of the best players from all the eight franchises.
The match is all set to be played three days before the inauguration match of IPL 2020. The game will be a one-off fixture and according to the reports by ESPNcricinfo, the teams will be selected based on four zones.
The first team will comprise the players who play in the franchises that fall in the northern and eastern zone while the other team will comprise the players who play in the franchises that fall in the southern and western zones.
The North-East Zone will be a team where players from Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders will take the charge and the South-West Zone will be a team where players from Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Sunrisers Hyderabad will contribute.
This move was announced following the IPL governing council meeting in New Delhi, which was attended by BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel.
The decision has been made that an all-star game will be played between two teams but there is still no clarity on what basis will the players be chosen and the final call is yet to be made by the authorities.
This news has had the cricket fans on the brink of their seats and everyone is eager to see some of the finest players in the world play with each other.
The players have not been chosen yet and there is no particular report that suggests the involvement of any of the franchises. Even the venue for the match hasn’t been finalized yet but there is still a lot of news surrounding the subject.
The all-star game will be one of those moments where there will be competition but with more fun in it.
The players haven’t been selected, the captains and the names of the teams are not yet decided, the venue hasn’t been decided and just with the date of the match, we fans are too excited to witness one of the finest matches of the year.
So, We at Kyro Sports decided to assemble the list of cricketing marvels who could play for either of the teams.
Who will captain the teams?
This might be the easiest decision of all time for the team that will be comprised of the franchises from South and West Zones. The team will have an option to get MS ‘Thalaiva’ Dhoni as the captain of the team.
Hopefully, the team will decide to have MS Dhoni in the playing XI and there is no doubt that there will be anyone else who will captain the team other than him.
It will be a different case if MS Dhoni decides to opt-out of the match, then also team South-West will have quite a few options in the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
With MS Dhoni in the team, I don’t think the management will have to seek other options for captaincy as the statement itself makes the case.
On one side where captaincy is not a big issue, let’s move on to the other team which will have a hard time looking for a captain.
As all the teams in the North-East zone (Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders) don’t have a regular captain for their respective sides.
The most likely choice for the captain will be either Steve Smith or Eoin Morgan as KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer don’t have much experience when it comes to leading a team comprised of legends.
As Steve Smith is not the current captain of the Australian side, Eoin Morgan will have an upper-hand in captaining the side. Morgan is a brilliant captain and will complement the legendary captain on the other side.
What do the franchises think about the all-star match?
There has been a lot of speculation on the involvement of team franchises in the all-star match. The two teams representing IPL franchises will go head to head in what is being tipped as an annual affair from this edition onwards.
The announcement was met with huge anticipations with fans and experts alike, but the franchise owners don’t seem to be too keen on allowing their players to fight in the all-star game.
There might be a long list of reasons that would range from commercial to cricket but the franchises must come on-board so that we all can experience a match that is one of its kind. “Commercially, we are not okay if players don’t wear our jersey (regardless of an All-Stars game),” a franchise owner was quoted by The Times of India.
In a conversation with Times of India, a franchise owner shared his opinion and said, “Sharing a player just a few days before the IPL will make him miss out on team bonding exercise, fitness trials and traveling so much will not be feasible. It doesn’t make sense and the few days before the IPL are meant for the players to get in sync with each other and this match will deprive that particular player of the proper timeline.”
There is also a report that suggests that the dates of IPL have not been finalized yet and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly may have announced the dates informally. “Once there’s clarity on who’ll be India’s board representative at ICC, that individual will also have to be at the ICC meetings. They’ll have to take a re-look at the starting date of the IPL once again,” quoted TOI. The board meeting is all set to take place in the last week of March and only then there will be a final decision on the whole situation.
Who could be in the two IPL 2020 all-star teams?
All-Star South-West XI
David Warner (SRH), Rohit Sharma (MI), Virat Kohli (RCB), Ab de Villiers (RCB), MS Dhoni (c & wk, CSK), Manish Pandey (SRH), Hardik Pandya (MI), Ravindra Jadeja (CSK), Rashid Khan (SRH), Trent Boult (MI), Deepak Chahar (CSK)
All-Star North-East XI
Ajinkya Rahane (DC), Shikhar Dhawan (DC), KL Rahul (KXIP), Shreyas Iyer (DC), Eoin Morgan (c, KKR), Dinesh Karthik (wk, KXIP), Andre Russell (KKR), Pat Cummins (KKR), R Ashwin (DC), Mohammed Shami (KXIP), Mujeeb-ur-Rahman (KXIP)
Trending Stories in Kyrosports:-
- Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma: The two astounding pillars of Indian Batting Line-Up
- IPL 2020 Auction: Five Released Players Who Could Draw Mega Bids
- IPL 2019: All about Shivam Dube and Varun Chakravarthy