Soon after the conclusion of the Indian Premier
League auction in December, one of the questions put to Venky Mysore was
whether the franchise "had any assurances from Pat Cummins, Cricket
Australia or the authorities" that the pacer would not pull out of the
tournament after bagging a Rs 15.50 crore deal. "Any foreign player who
puts his name in, we've all got assurances and reassurances from IPL that not
only they've taken undertakings from players but the boards as well," the
Knight Riders CEO said, before cheekily adding, "I have a suspicion that
with Rs 15.50 crores, he'll come".
It wasn't just a tongue-in-cheek response, because
Knight Riders have had to deal with the disruption of foreign players
withdrawing in the past. They were dented by Mitchell Starc pulling out of IPL
2018 primarily because of an injury. A year later, after Starc was let go by the franchise over a text message,
Mysore revealed the franchise was going to base their strategy on the
availability of players. In a tournament like the IPL, a good auction is
crucial for the team's chances. And hence, a player missing out because of
injury or pulling out does leave an unkind cut even before the battle begins.
Also Read: Highest Score
in IPL History from 2008 to Till Date
Several teams walked away pretty satisfied with
their auction performances last year, only to find themselves rebuilding their
strategies now. And with the tournament moved to the United Arab Emirates
completely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, all teams have been forced to
re-calibrate their plans to some degree. The move may have left some of their
strategies redundant now that they will be without the comfort of a home base,
while plans for specific Indian venues have gone out the window. Simon Katich,
the head coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, has been candid enough to admit
their IPL auction plans have taken a hit.
"When we had the auction, we were planning a
squad assuming we'll play half of our games at the Chinnaswamy (stadium),"
Katich says. "When you have a high-scoring venue as your home ground, that
factors into the makeup of your squad. Now with UAE, yes, there's a slight
variation."
For Mike Hesson, RCB's director of cricket, the
focus is now on ensuring that the players and the think-tank aren't
"flying blind". "We've gathered a lot of information from a
variety of tournaments over the last five years," he points out.
"We've spent a huge amount of time since we knew it's coming to UAE, even
two-three months before, making sure we've gathered as much information so that
we are not flying blind. We'll be playing at three venues but the reality is we
will not be training at the venues."
Also Read: Most Runs in IPL
History Till 2020
But with all the teams on the same page, it's now
about who gets ahead with the stakes even. For that too, there are plans afoot.
While the teams have already started training, for
the strategists it's all about simplifying things in the lead-up to the
tournament. It's not something they are unfamiliar with. For Sriram Somayujala,
who has worked as an analyst around the globe with various T20 and T10 teams
including Delhi Capitals, there is a silver lining. "As far as my data is
concerned, I have to work only for three different venues. It's actually a
time-saver for me," he says in a conversation with Cricbuzz. "The
grounds are studied based on certain metrics. Things like the proportions of
the ground, the size of boundaries, the type of wicket etc. will help us with
our plans.
"The pitches, we can expect it to be fresh for
at least the first few games (scores like 160-170) but there definitely will be
a big dew factor in these venues. So I'm guessing, teams will start preferring
to chase in venues like Sharjah and Abu Dhabi."
The bowlers will be
happy playing in Abu Dhabi considering the longer boundaries ©Getty
Extensive experience on the same grounds as an
analyst has also helped Somayujala craft a plan wherein he finds the
similarities or differences to venues in India, and formulates strategies
accordingly. "What I've done is out of the eight grounds in India, I've
made a group of three. The grouping style, like I said earlier, is based on
studying the venues on certain metrics such as ground dimensions. For example,
Sharjah is amongst the smaller venues in the world, something like Indore,
because it's a very small ground - the distance from the centre wicket to the road
is only 92m!"
But that's not all.
Also Read: Most Wickets
in IPL History Till 2020
"We're also looking at par scores achieved in
the past in day games and night games. There's no need for scores on a ground
to be similar between day and night games. But along with this, it's necessary
to understand how critical getting the right combinations are, if you need to
be spin-heavy or pace-heavy depending on the ground, and even the time at which
the matches are played," he says.
But while ground dimensions form one part of the
planning, Somayujala also explains how it could dictate match-ups.
"Dimensions of each ground will be different. In Abu Dhabi, there could be
a lot more runs scored by singles and doubles because the diagonals are bigger
there as opposed to Dubai and Sharjah.
"A plan which we make for KL Rahul can be
different from what we have for Rohit Sharma, or it can be the same keeping the
dimensions and wicket conditions in mind. Someone like Rohit can score runs on
any wicket, but we have to factor in how he scored those runs
in tournaments like the Asia Cup."
Also Read: Most Sixes in
IPL History Till 2020
Sunrisers Hyderabad analyst Shrinivas
Chandrasekaran, too, has been following the same pattern as Somayajula.
"It'll still work in our favour [moving to UAE] because we generally play
on a good wicket in Hyderabad, it's generally a flat wicket. You expect a
similar kind of surface in Dubai, with the dimension being quite similar,"
he says. "In Abu Dhabi, we'll have a bigger venue which none of the
bowlers will actually complain about.
"So if you look at that aspect, Dubai is very
similar to what we play on (in Hyderabad); in Abu Dhabi, it'll seem like you're
playing in Jaipur because the surface is also on the slower side and once you
go to Sharjah, it's more like how you bowl in Chinnaswamy. You know how you've
bowled in those venues, so it's about going there and adapting to those
surfaces."
Also Read: Lowest
and Highest Powerplay Score in IPL History
UAE venues since Jan 2016
Venue |
Mat |
Bat
1st - Won |
Bat
2nd - Won |
NR |
Bat
1st - Win% |
Bat
2nd - Win% |
Abu
Dhabi |
9 |
3 |
6 |
0 |
33.33% |
66.67% |
Sharjah |
40 |
12 |
25 |
3 |
30.00% |
62.50% |
Dubai |
66 |
23 |
42 |
1 |
34.85% |
63.64% |
Total |
115 |
38 |
73 |
4 |
33.04% |
63.48% |
Matches
included: PSL + T20Is involving Pakistan
IPL matches in India since 2016
Venue |
Mat |
Bat
1st - Won |
Bat
2nd - Won |
NR |
Bat
1st - Win % |
Bat
2nd - Win % |
Jaipur |
14 |
5 |
9 |
0 |
35.7% |
64.3% |
Mumbai |
28 |
11 |
17 |
0 |
39.3% |
60.7% |
Kolkata |
30 |
12 |
18 |
0 |
40.0% |
60.0% |
Mohali |
21 |
9 |
12 |
0 |
42.9% |
57.1% |
Chennai |
9 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
44.4% |
55.6% |
Bengaluru |
31 |
13 |
17 |
1 |
41.9% |
54.8% |
Hyderabad |
30 |
15 |
15 |
0 |
50.0% |
50.0% |
Delhi |
28 |
15 |
13 |
0 |
53.6% |
46.4% |
Boundary
percentage in UAE and Indian venues
Venue |
Boundary
runs% |
Balls/Boundary |
Abu
Dhabi |
49.0% |
8.0 |
Dubai |
56.7% |
6.7 |
Sharjah |
58.5% |
6.5 |
Jaipur |
54.5% |
6.2 |
Hyderabad |
55.0% |
6.6 |
Chennai |
56.0% |
7.1 |
Delhi |
60.2% |
5.8 |
Bengaluru |
63.8% |
5.3 |
Kolkata |
65.0% |
5.1 |
Mohali |
56.7% |
5.7 |
Mumbai |
62.7% |
5.5 |