Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra questioned the logic of Rajasthan Royals allotting their first two home games to their secondary home venue, Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati rather than to their main venue-Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. It makes ‘no sense if local fans will have to wait until April 13 to come watch their team live when they play Royal Challengers Bangalore.’
RR is not the only team to have alternate home grounds. Punjab Kings will be playing three matches at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala, and we will also see the Delhi Capitals play their first two of the season at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vizag. Their first home game will be at Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 13 against the Mumbai Indians.
“Three teams-Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings-have alternate venues, and I start wondering why do that? Rajasthan opens their campaign in away matches; they don’t win in Guwahati. I think they have won just one out of four.” This he said on his YouTube channel.
“So why is the start there? By the time you come to Jaipur, it would be around April 13. Twenty days and you haven’t played at home. Jaipur people don’t know when their team plays at home in Rajasthan; it doesn’t make sense,” he added.
He, too, found RCB’s schedule fascinating and their tough outings with Kolkata Knight Riders.
“Bengaluru has three of their last four and four of their last six games at home. In the second half of the season, they get more home games. That was a problem in the past, but last season taught one that they handle this quite well,” he said.
“They have won the last few matches at home and qualified. So if we take the guide from last year’s template, it looks fairly okay. However, the interesting part is the fact that they start with and end against Kolkata. That is going to be a tough game since the games against them are generally always tight; besides, they lost to Kolkata here,” Chopra added.
