The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the schedule for the 2021 season of the Vivo IPL. Due to Covid restrictions and the situation in India, although the tournament will take place at home, it will be held only in 6 grounds and to keep it as fair as possible in such a situation, no teams will play at their home ground. Ahmedabad’s Motera Stadium, formally known as the Narendra Modi Stadium, has been introduced as a new venue for the IPL, alongside the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, Eden Gardens in Kolkata, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, M.A. Chidambaram stadium in Chennai, and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The fourteenth season will be played in what can be seen as 3 legs. The first set of matches from the 9th of April to the 25th of April will be held in Chennai and Mumbai, whereas the matches held from the 26th of April to the 8th of May will be held in Delhi and Ahmedabad, with the last league matches being held in Kolkata and Bangalore till the 23rd of May. Ahmedabad will host all the Playoff matches.
The change in venues, a new venue being introduced, no home matches and matches being played in only 4 stadiums for each team will have great impacts on all the teams. Some teams will gain major benefits whereas some will not gain any significant benefits. Taking a look at who will benefit the most and who will benefit the least, if any benefit is gained. And giving Benefit Ratings based on the same!
TOP 2: THE TWO TEAMS WHO HAVE THE MOST BENEFIT AS PER THE SCHEDULE
The team who will gain the most benefit from the new schedule and format will be Delhi Capitals! A benefit ranking of 9.5 is what the new schedule has them achieve.
DELHI CAPITALS: Delhi Capitals are one of the teams which is the most settled and the strongest in IPL 2021 and that helps them not get negatively affected a lot by any change but what the schedule brings for them is that it gives them the majority of their matches in Kolkata (5) and then they have a total combined of 6 matches in Chennai and then Ahmedabad. The Chennai pitch is known to be one where a team with quality spinners has the complete opportunity of dominating the game. In Ahmedabad, even in the T20 matches held, the pitch isn’t completely beneficial to the batsmen and the fast bowlers but the pitch provides a good balance if conditions favour and it is made properly. You will get a decent covering grass but there will the help for spin bowlers and at the end the ball gets on to the bat well if the batsman is able to read the bowler.
In Chennai, the 2 matches that DC has are against MI and SRH. MI has been strong in Chennai and SRH has a spin bowling arsenal which several teams can only dream of. These two matches will not be the easiest but some points to note will be that SRH’s main batting strength lies in their overseas batsman in the form of Bairstow, Williamson and Warner. These three players although can play spin well and have a lot of experience playing in Hyderabad will be troubled by the likes of Mishra, Axar and Ashwin. And Delhi has the advantage of having an Indian batting core which performs well against spin and can handle spin better than the top order of SRH.
In Ahmedabad, Delhi Capitals have gotten all the weapons they need. They have the spinners, they have the fast bowlers and they have the batsman needed for the job. Another major advantage for Delhi Capitals will be that players like Iyer, Dhawan, Pant and Axar will have the experience of having played T20I in Ahmedabad and will have more knowledge of the pitch that the players in the teams that DC will be facing. Delhi Capitals has power hitters to cover the boundaries in Ahmedabad but the real advantage will lie in the experience their players will have and their bowling depth and versatility.
Other than this, DC will be playing their final 5 matches in Kolkata and start their campaign with 3 matches in Mumbai. Mumbai will provide the help to the fast bowlers and the bounce Rabada would like, whereas the KKR pitch is one that generally gives matches these days which are not very tilted towards one team, with the pitch not being as spin – friendly as before but not a paradise for batsmen. Delhi have been very lucky even with the opposition that they will be facing at each of the grounds.
The team who will gain a lot of benefits, but just a little less than that of DC will be Mumbai Indians.
MUMBAI INDIANS: Mumbai Indians will be playing majority of their matches in Chennai (5) and then a combined of 7 matches in Delhi and Bangalore, with 2 matches in Kolkata.
Rohit Sharma will be the one looking forward to the matches in Kolkata with a very good record and a love for that ground whereas the spinners will be looking forward to the 5 matches in Chennai. Mumbai Indians are another team who have a very good squad as a whole and are not disadvantaged a lot staying away from home. Although MI does not have the most desirable spin bowling line – up, they have a good record in Chennai and their slow ball bowlers and spinners can do good on the pitch in Chennai and although they face some strong opposition, their batting line up will not be troubled a lot by the bowlers like Bishnoi, and Rashid Khan.
Mumbai Indians’s toughest campaign will be in Chennai because of the opposition they face. They lack that bit of spin bowling depth that could propel them forward but their batting line – up makes up for any gaps in their bowling line up and their fast bowlers are more than capable to dominate on even such pitches but taking them away from Mumbai does bring a fair amount of damage to them.
Mumbai Indians will be playing 4 matches in Delhi. Not very big boundaries, the pitch has a good behaviour towards the batsman and is not of that of an enemy, and Rohit Sharma, SuryaKumar Yadav, and the other batsman alongwith the fast bowling line – up consisting of Bumrah and Trent Boult will love to get a taste of that pitch which provides some assistance and does not take away a significant amount of pace from ball. The opposition will be CSK, SRH and RR. Delhi does not give very high scoring matches and Mumbai Indians loves dominating low – scoring games because of how deep their batting line – up goes, especially as compared to CSK, SRH and RR.
Kolkata is a ground Mumbai Indians will love with their power hitters, small boundary distance, and their arsenal of fast bowlers. Bangalore should also be like a paradise for MI and this will mean that they should win atleast these 5 matches for sure.
The team which will gain the next most befits is Rajasthan Royals with a benefit rating of 8.5 and the Kolkata Knight Riders with a benefit rating of 8. Rajasthan Royals have lost some luck when it comes to the opposition they face at each ground and that is what turns some fortune against them, otherwise they have not received any ground which will not be favorable to them. KKR may look like a team which has a lot of advantage but their matches in Mumbai and Bangalore will be the tough ones for them and that is what keeps them away from being the team which gains the most benefit.
Then come SRH, RCB AND PBKS with a benefit rating of 8, 7 and 7 respectively. RCB have some issues with their squad as well and hence, lose some of the advantage they would gain in Kolkata and Ahmedabad. They are not benefitted much, especially when compared to what they had in Bangalore. SRH have too many matches in Bangalore and Delhi and that will take away some of their benefit and advantage and other grounds, as mentioned before, their opposition will cause some good damage to their batting line up which SRH’s bowling line up may not be able to do as much. SRH have a benefit rating of 8 but KKR has a more minute benefits which give them a little more advantage over SRH.
AT THE BOTTOM: THE TEAM WITH NO BENEFIT
And the final team is CSK. With no Benefit Ranking.
They have been taken away from Chepauk but not even given a single match in Ahmedabad. Majority of their matches are in Mumbai which has large boundaries and is not the kind of pitch the bowling line up of CSK can properly utilise. The amount of pace and bounce that Wankhede’s pitch can provide is not something the likes of Deepak Chahar can use.
Chennai Super Kings do not have any venue, which will be less favorable to their opposition team than them and CSK might not have a very good campaign. 5 matches are at Mumbai, which if were instead in Kolkata could have painted a more positive picture for CSK. There will be a lot of challenges that CSK will face but it seems like this will be another season were they will have a dismal campaign. It is not like they do not have players who can play well at the venues where they will be playing but they do not have any significant benefit and hence no rating. They di have some benefits but it has not much value against the other 7 teams.
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