IPL 2020 | Wickets in UAE might be on slower side but ground staff can surprise us, opines VVS Laxman

08/24/2020

Ahead of IPL 2020 in the UAE, Sunrisers’ batting mentor VVS Laxman has opined that the wickets might be on the slower side but feels that ground staff can surprise everyone involved with different pitches. He also promised the fans that the quality of cricket will not come down despite no crowd.

In the past, the playing conditions in the United Arab Emirates has always been on the slower side, aiding to Pakistan’s bowling attack. A similar condition is expected by teams ahead of the 2020 season of the IPL.

Echoing in on that thought, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s batting mentor VVS Laxman opined that the wickets in the Middle East might be on the slower side. However, the former Indian veteran also stated that there might also be a chance the ground staff to surprise one and all by preparing lively T20 wickets for the T20 tournament.

“Probably the wickets may be on the slower side but we have to just wait and see because we may just be surprised with the efforts put in by the ground staff. The outfield will be fantastic but the wickets are something that I hope will be well taken care of by the ground staff,” said VVS Laxman, reported Hindustan Times.

“I can assure all the fans of the game that they will really enjoy the competition even though there won’t be any crowd or any spectators on the ground. Don’t ever think that the energy or the quality of cricket will come down."

SRH picked up one of Jharkhand’s top performers, Virat Singh, during the auctions last year and Laxman revealed that it was a conscious effort from the franchise to pick a lot of domestic players to strengthen their middle-order batting.

“When you see the composition of our team, we had a lot of experienced players from both overseas and India. But when we look at the domestic players, we (were) required to strengthen our batting, especially our middle-order batting. So we went with the performer in the last couple of seasons.”

The franchise’s Indian players landed in the city on Sunday, a month ahead of the scheduled start of the 2020 edition of the tournament.