Brought to a halt by the recent India-Pakistan border tensions, the IPL will resume on Saturday with Royal Challengers Bengaluru taking on Kolkata Knight Riders in a high-stakes contest where the spotlight will firmly be on Virat Kohli following his recent Test retirement.
The unexpected 10-day break has left both the RCB and the KKR with different goals to achieve and common challenges to hurdle over.
The RCB are second on the table with 16 points from 11 matches, and a win here can propel them to the playoffs.
KKR are sixth on the table with 11 points from 12 games, and a slip-up will evaporate the defending champions’ hopes of making the knockouts.
They are also faced with the challenging task of hitting the pre-break intensity straightaway at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
The hosts are coming off a four-match winning streak while the tourists have managed to stitch two victories in three matches before the league came to a grinding halt. Questions remain on whether they can regain that competitive edge after a passage of uncertainty.
But RCB are better-placed to surmount these difficulties, and the sight of skipper Rajat Patidar batting rather fluently at nets might have soothed a lot of nerves.
Patidar had injured his finger during the home match against Chennai Super Kings, forcing him to wear a splint.
The hosts also have most of their foreign recruits back in the hut after returning home in the wake of the Indo-Pak military face-off.
The likes of Phil Salt, Lungi Ngidi, Tim David, Liam Livingstone and Romario Shepherd are available for this match and beyond.
The jarring notes will be the injury-enforced absence of Devdutt Padikkal and pacer Josh Hazlewood.
RCB will also hope that Mayank Agarwal, who has replaced Padikkal in the line-up, will rise to the occasion.
Hazlewood has a shoulder injury and the franchise has not yet given clarity on his availability.
The Kohli factor
However, the loudest cheers will be reserved for Kohli, who announced his retirement from Test cricket earlier this week.
If social media calls are anything to go by, the faithfuls are planning to don the white jersey to honour a batter who lorded over the traditional format.
However, Kohli does not require such external motivation to stoke his inner fire and, rest assured, the 36-year-old will be eager to churn out some impactful knocks, perhaps a silent riposte after a rather abruptly ending his Test career.
The Knight Riders, riddled with their own issues, might just be the opponents that Kohli needs to vent a few strands of frustration, if indeed there is any.
Worries for KKR
Batting has been KKR’s Achilles Heel this season as apart from captain Ajinkya Rahane and young Angkrish Raghuvanshi, none of their batters have managed to contribute consistently.
They would like a few more runs from the bats of Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and Rinku Singh.
However, the KKR bowling line-up of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana has held its own despite being on the expensive side on occasions.
But they will be deprived of the presence of experienced England all-rounder Moeen Ali, who has been ruled out of the IPL with viral fever, if the pitch here has retained its grip seen during the previous matches.
The pitch factor
he Chinnaswamy track so far has shown an affinity towards the bowlers with pacers and, at times, spinners getting rather unanticipated help in the form of bounce and bite.
But the prolonged interval and the swiftly setting in monsoon might have had their effect on it, leaving the teams to reshape their strategies accordingly.
Teams (from): Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Mayank Agarwal, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Liam Livingstone, Nuwan Thushara, Lungi Ngidi, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson.
Match starts at 7.30pm.