List Of All New Updates For IPL 2020

The thirteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just a couple of months away and unsurprisingly, the excitement among the fans is increasing. IPL has now become an indispensable part of the cricket calendar. The auction for the upcoming season has already been done and one can say that all the eight teams are looking strong on paper.

The upcoming season will kickstart on March 29 with defending champions Mumbai Indians taking one one of the remaining seven teams in the IPL-opener at the home base Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The final will also be held in Mumbai.

Ahead of the start of the season, the IPL governing council has taken some big decisions in order to make the tournament more interesting. So here is a list of all the new updates that will be seen in IPL 2020.

1. All-Star game:

Three days before the main tournament, an All-Star game will take place. Players from all the eight franchises will take part in the star-studded game. The venue for the game is still not decided. According to reports, the proceeds from the game will go the charity.

No-ball umpire gets green light:

The governing council has also decided to let an off-field match official to supervise no-balls. Last year, there was a major controversy when the on-field umpire had failed to notice a no-ball delivered by Mumbai Indians’ Lasith Malinga against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Later, Virat Kohli had slammed the umpiring standards in the league.

Concussion substitutes to be introduced:

In another big change, IPL 2020 will also see concussion substitutes. The match referee is the final authority on who could come in as concussion substitute with the option of disallowing replacements if they are deemed not to be like-for-like replacements. The ICC has already started the system in international cricket.

Four teams for women’s T20 exhibition matches:

In yet another decision to bolster women’s cricket, the BCCI has decided to add another team to the women’s T20 exhibition matches. In 2018 two teams – Supernovas and Trailblazers – played a one-off game. Last year, Velocity was added as a total of four games were played. For the upcoming season, the BCCI has decided to add a fourth team.

Mid-season transfer:

While the governing council or the BCCI is yet to confirm this but reports suggest that IPL 2020 is likely to become the first season where all the eight teams will have an option of loaning capped players – Indian or overseas – between them after the halfway point of the season.

The Governing Council had introduced a mid-season football-style transfer window last season. A provision was made for a short transfer window midway through the campaign for uncapped players and those who have played no more than two matches till the halfway stage of the tournament. However, no franchise had made the use of it.

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