|| Desk Report ||

2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) is all set to take place in the UAE from September 19 across three venues of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. The 53-day tournament will be comprised of 60 matches.

While the teams are gearing up to play after a long break due to COVID-19, Indian team's ace fast bowler Mohammed Shami said that the league will help them prepare well for the upcoming Australia tour.

Team India will fly directly after the IPL ends on November 10 for the much-awaited tour which is going to begin with a T20 series followed by four Tests and ODIs as well.

"It would be great that the Australia-bound players are playing IPL. It will set the body and momentum perfectly by then," the pace spearhead of Kings XI Punjab said to PTI recently.

India registered a historic win against Australia for the first time in 2018-19 under Virat Kohli. It was noteworthy that the Australia team didn’t have the service of their two best players - Steve Smith and David Warner who was banned because of their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal.

"I feel it's better that we are playing IPL before a big series. Apart from IPL, everyone is also focused on that tour (Down Under). There is a lot of talk about that series. We will have a good contest," Shami said.

"Yes, there're back to back matches, training, travelling that's a bit of headache. But it's a short format, short matches, physically there should not be any workload issue," the fast bowler added. "This time, there won't be much travelling. You will have to travel just about two hours by bus (when there is a match in Abu Dhabi)."