The wait of ardent fans to witness the T20 extravaganza– IPL 2020– is finally going to end soon as the BCCI is set to stage the tournament from September 19 to November 10 in the UAE. With a surge in COVID-19 cases across India, the BCCI was left with no other option but to shift the league to a different country altogether.

The Indian board was optimistic to host this year’s IPL after the ICC announced the postponement of T20 World Cup 2020. The delay of the showpiece event paved way for the BCCI to host IPL 2020 in that window and UAE, in the process, emerged as a viable option.

GC has allowed the franchises to replace their players under the COVID-19 substitute window

Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the cash-rich league will be played under strict norms to ensure the safety of players as well as support staff. Players are expected to undergo at least five coronavirus tests before hitting the nets on the UAE soil.

A BCCI official had recently revealed that all Indian players and support staff will have to undergo two COVID-19 RT-PCR tests, 24 hours apart, a week ahead of joining their respective teams where they will complete a 14-day quarantine.

In the IPL Governing Council meeting, it was also decided that the franchises can travel to UAE with a maximum of 24 players in each squad. This decision was taken by the council keeping in mind the maximum of 24 players bought by the majority of IPL franchises at The IPL Auction 2020. But the GC has allowed the franchises to replace their players under the COVID-19 substitute window during the course of the tournament.

However, the decision of entering the tournament with 24 players has added to franchises’ woes. The sides– Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad had picked 25 players each at the IPL player auction last year. They will have to drop one member from their squad before plying their trade in the tournament.

Here is a complete list of players of the three franchises:

Kings XI Punjab:

Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Mandeep Singh, Sheldon Cottrell, Ishan Porel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Hardus Viljoen, M Ashwin, J Suchith, Harpreet Brar, Darshan Nalkande, Glenn Maxwell, James Neesham, Chris Jordan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, KL Rahul (C), Nicholas Pooran, Prabhsimran Singh.

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Kane Williamson, David Warner, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mitchell Marsh, Fabian Allen, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Sanjay Yadav, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Bavanaka Sandeep, Basil Thampi.

Rajasthan Royals:

Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Steve Smith, Robin Uthappa, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Shashank Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anirudha Joshi, Tom Curran, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Anuj Rawat