"That reservation has been kept aside" - Aakash Chopra on the Mumbai Indians getting to play matches at their home ground in IPL 2022
Aakash Chopra has highlighted that the reported requests from other franchises for the Mumbai Indians not to be allowed to play any of the IPL 2022 matches at the Wankhede Stadium have been denied.
The BCCI announced the schedule for the league phase of IPL 2022 on Sunday. The 70 league matches have been split across three venues in Mumbai and the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
Reflecting on the IPL 2022 schedule in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra pointed out that the Mumbai Indians have not been kept away from their home ground. He observed:
"The attempt has been made to give all teams equal matches at the venues. There is a report that an objection was raised by teams that Mumbai should not be given a single match at the Wankhede but that reservation has been kept aside."
The cricketer-turned-commentator observed that the Mumbai Indians are the only franchise who will not have to make alterations to their plans specifically for IPL 2022. Aakash Chopra explained:
"They are the only team whose auction strategy is not different for this year and the coming years. Mumbai is the only franchise that is not affected. They will play all their matches here only and next year onwards as well. So there was a reservation from the franchises."
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The Wankhede Stadium surface is known to be a high-scoring ground and is generally more helpful to the pacers as compared to the spinners. So the Mumbai Indians usually pack their squad with big-hitting batters and seam bowlers.
"Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium" - Aakash Chopra on the impact on other IPL franchises
Aakash Chopra highlighted that the strategies of all the other IPL franchises have been slightly compromised. He explained:
"All other teams thought, of course, this year they will play here but CSK will go to Chennai, Kolkata will go to the Eden Gardens, Delhi to the Arun Jaitley Stadium, think about the Rajasthan Royals - Yuzi Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. So they also made their team with that viewpoint."
However, the former KKR player did acknowledge that the Mumbai Indians playing their matches only at the other three IPL 2022 venues would not have made much of a difference. Aakash Chopra reasoned:
"You know what, whether you play at Wankhede or in the neighboring Brabourne or DY Patil - they are all similar kinds of surfaces. All three places have the same red-soil pitches, this is the way it is. One team will actually benefit slightly."
Aakash Chopra added that an attempt has also been made to evenly split the afternoon matches across IPL teams. The 44-year-old concluded by saying that six of the 10 teams not making it through to the playoffs will make the tournament more exciting.