West Indians Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis and Kieron Pollard are expected to be in action when defending champions Mumbai Indians face Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener on April 7 in Mumbai.
The Chennai Super Kings will also play the last match of the league phase, which ends on May 20, against Kings Eleven Punjab.
The schedule for the 2019 IPL season released yesterday shows that the IPL has also decided not to alter the tournament’s regular match timings with afternoon matches scheduled for a 4pm start and the evening matches commencing at 8pm.
In a welcome change, all the double headers – 13 in total – will be played over Saturday and Sunday.
44 matches during the league phase will be played in the evening, while the remaining 12 games will be start in the afternoon.
In addition to the home bases of the eight franchises, Indore will be the ninth venue, playing host to the home games of King’s Eleven.
Apart from the tournament opener and the final, Mumbai will also host the first qualifier.