The defending Champions the Mumbai Indians, will take on one of the two new franchises for 2016, the the Rising Pune Supergiants.
That the fixture is taking place in Mumbai at all is a great relief to the cricketing authorities, given the uncertainty surrounding the staging of the game in the drought hit state of Maharashtra. The High Court in Bombay only giving the go ahead for the tournament’s opening contest at least to take place at the venue on Thursday.
While Pune may be a newly formed outfit, they have a number of players on their roster who are icons of the T20 format, including their captain MS Dhoni, who had led the now suspended Chennai Super Kings to so much success.
Overseas signings Kevin Pietersen, Faf du Plessis and Mitchell Marsh will be expected to supply the bulk of the runs, the bowling attack will be led by home grown Indian talent.
Ishant Sharma, although not seemingly required by the national selectors in the short format of the game, will be the nearest thing that Pune have to real pace, but in the slow bowling department they will have the skills of the leg spinner M Ashwin and Rajat Bhatia with his variations in pace to plying their trade.
If the surface at the Wankhede Stadium is anything like that produced for matches in the recently concluded World T20, then their will be runs aplenty on Saturday.
But whatever happens, the hosts will have to make do without the all time leading wicket taker in the IPL, Lasith Malinga, who appears set to miss the entire tournament due to the bone bruise in his left knee, which has been troubling him since October last year.