IPL 2021 to begin on April 9

|| India Correspondent ||

The 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to begin on April 9, just after 12 days when Team India finishes its ongoing series against England, BCCI confirmed on Saturday. 

However, both India and England have been playing against each other in a full-fledged series where the four-match Test series have ended and India successfully won it. Now they will play the T20I series in Ahmedabad and the ODI series in Pune which will end on March 28.

"We have provisionally decided that IPL will start on April 9 and end on May 30," a senior BCCI source told PTI.

"The formal approval of dates and venues will be done during Governing Council meeting next week," the source again shared.

Meanwhile, there were a lot of buzz regarding the venues as, amid this crunch time of COVID-19, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCI) had earlier decided to host the entire tournament in six cities - Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. However, the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai and Pune left them with no choice but to put up a question mark on Mumbai as one of their venues.

And, the BCCI has decided to conduct IPL matches in the other five cities. As far as Mumbai is concerned, the city will have to get clearance for hosting matches as well. Meanwhile, the allotment of matches to Chennai and Kolkata will be done, keeping the state Assembly election in mind which is scheduled to take place in the next few weeks.

However, Mumbai Indians had won the 2020 edition of the league that took place in the UAE in a bio-secure bubble. Also, the Asia Cup, which was slated to be played in June this year in India, stands cancelled as "now that India have qualified for the World Test Championship final, courtesy their 3-1 series win over England."

India thrashed England convincingly by an innings and 25 runs on Saturday in the fourth and final Test in Ahmedabad to finish at the top of the ICC Test championship table with a huge 520 points. With this, they have reached the final of the inaugural tournament where they will take on New Zealand in June at the Lord's.