He will return just after the 1st Test against Australia in Adelaide,” Board secretary Jay Shah stated in a press release.
The IPL 2020 has reached its business end, and like all its previous editions the swashbuckling cricket league had its fair shares of controversies this year as well.
1) The ‘balcony-gate’: The IPL began on a sombre note for three-time champions Chennai Super Kings as one of their batting mainstays Suresh Raina pulled out of the tournament. Initially his departure from the UAE was attributed to a family emergency but as the events unfolded fans learnt that Raina left the squad owing to alleged differences with the team management. The rumour mills even went on to say that the stylish southpaw opted out because his hotel room didn’t have a balcony! CSK’s tournament only went from bad to worse after that.
2) Gavaskar-Anushka spat: Sunil Gavaskar while commenting on the form of Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli, referred to a viral video and said, “Kohli only faced Anushka’s bowling during the lockdown.” Virat’s wife Anushka Sharma, seemingly miffed by Gavaskar’s “off colour” remark, took to social media to bash the former Indian skipper. In his defence, Gavaskar said that his comment was misinterpreted and the controversy cooled off, but not before Twitterati had a field day with cheeky memes over it.
3) The short run that wasn’t: Kings XI Punjab would consider themselves unlucky this time around. With their skipper KL Rahul going great guns with the bat and useful contributions from the entire squad the Kings looked set to be a part of the business end of the IPL 2020, but in their match against Delhi Capitals the on-field umpire Nitin Menon adjudged that Chris Jordan hadn’t completely crossed the crease and declared it a short run (replays showed it wasn’t). The game went into the Super Over and eventually Kings XI ended up losing the game and vital points.
4) Yes, no, maybe: In a match between CSK and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Australian umpire Paul Reiffel began stretching his hands to signal a wide during SRH’s chase, but changed his mind half way through it. Cameras showed that CSK skipper MS Dhoni and bowler Shardul Thakur expressed their displeasure at Reiffel making him override his own judgement in the process. Replays showed that the ball was indeed perilously close to being a wide.
5) James Neesham versus Aakash Chopra: Commentator Aakash Chopra expressed his displeasure when Kings XI Punjab picked James Neesham in their playing 11 and went on to say that the Kiwi all-rounder was “not a match winner.” When Twitter users pointed this out to Neesham he took a swipe at Chopra’s IPL career and said, “Averaging 18.5 and striking at 90 doesn’t win many matches either.” Touché!