Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni & Rohit Sharma To Play Together As It Is North & East vs South & West In All-Star IPL Game

For the very first time in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), an IPL All-star match will precede the tournament. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly confirmed about the game on Monday evening after the conclusion of the IPL Governing Council meet in New Delhi.

Players from all the eight teams will feature in the star-studded game. The much-anticipated game will be played three days before the IPL’s opening match which will take place on March 29. Both the opening match and the IPL final will be played in Mumbai, the home base of defending champions Mumbai Indians.

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The teams:

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, the two teams for the all-star match are likely to be formed by combining players from the four franchises. As per the report, one team will have players from the franchise located in the north and east of India – Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders.

The other team will have players from the franchises in the south and west – Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians. Thus the fans can finally see the likes of MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, David Warner and other big names to play together in the same team. Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit have never played together for an IPL team.

In the other team, the likes of Andre Russell, Glenn Maxwell, Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes could feature. The venue for the star-studded clash is not finalised yet. The report further claimed that the idea to host the all-star match came from the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel, the former India batsman.