For the first time in the IPL’s history of being hosted in India, all 8 teams will play no matches at their home venues and have been assigned neutral venues through the tournament!
We take a look at the impact of this decision today on Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers who start their campaign in Chennai on the 9th.
IPL 2021 is now set to take place from the 9th of April to the 30th of May across India and will start behind closed doors with a decision on whether to allow fans looking bleak, with our nation still battling the effects of the Covid19 pandemic The one never-seen-before twist to the schedule is that of neutral venues, which could have a massive impact on the success of teams based on where they play the majority of their games.
Matches at each Venue for each IPL team
RCB & Virat Kohli start their campaign on the opening night up against the defending Champions, but it’s not just the Mumbai Indians they’ll be battling. RCB have a win % of just 22.2 at the Chepauk stadium and will want to erase the demons of the past to get off to a good start in search of that elusive IPL title.
View this post on Instagram
On the flip side, Virat Kohli and his men have the most relaxed schedule of all teams with the longest gap between matches (which can be a bad thing too when momentum is on your side) and start the tournament with 3 matches spread over 10 days. In addition, their bowlers, who are used to being hammered to all parts of the small Chinnaswamy stadium will be relatively happier playing away, although they play 7 games on the batting-friendly decks of Mumbai and Kolkata. This could of course, turn into a big advantage for their star-studded, lethal batting unit, especially with 5 games to end the league stage at the majestic Eden Gardens that offers the batsmen plenty of runs!
WIN % AT EACH VENUE | CHENNAI | MUMBAI | KOLKATA | AHMEDABAD |
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE | 22.2 | 30 | 40 | N.A |
Virat Kohli will also be pretty happy to have 4 games at the new Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the venue of the recent T20Is vs England where King Kohli was adjudged Man of the Series for his batting display.
With RCB having signed the likes of Maxwell, Dan Christian and Kyle Jamieson, they’ll be pretty happy with the venues they’ve been assigned, if they can just get through the first phase of the tournament in decent shape, with perhaps a couple of wins from those first 3 games in Chennai. The inclusion of Devdutt Padikkal at the top means less reliance on ABD & Virat and they’ll be hoping that, with Virat set to open the batting and a majority of batsmen-friendly tracks in sight, 2021 could be the year that RCB finally land both hands on that coveted trophy!
[Header Image Credit: Royal Challengers Bangalore]
Suhail Chandhok
Vertical Head - Sports