The grounds are much bigger, the outfields are sandier and a persistent Covid-19 threat looms large but all of that hasn't deterred the spirit of the 'Royals', 'Kings', Knights or the 'Challengers' to jet set and go and compete in the thirteenth edition of the IPL which got underway a week ago in the United Arab Emirates.
Devoid of spectators, staged behind empty doors in a new bio-secure landscape amid the Arabian desert, IPL 2020 kickstarted a week back under the so-called 'new normal' amid the Covid-19 pandemic as eight teams took to battleground across three venues for a month and a half long T20 extravaganza with the sole aim of winning one of the most coveted T20 league in the world.
Season 13 got off to a blazing start as 3-time champion Chennai Super Kings beating defending Champions Mumbai Indians and extracted sweet revenge for their last edition's final loss in Hyderabad.
Although still very much early days, the traditional heavyweights in Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians have blown hot and cold and potential challengers like Delhi Capitals and Kings Eleven Punjab have offered a strong challenge to the big guns in the opening week.
All the teams have given a glimpse of what they have to offer and opponents have a keen eye on what weaknesses to exploit.

Teams have already been hit by injuries woes and the think tanks have pondered hard in tinkering their combinations to get their best Playing XI's right.
SRH all-rounder Mitchell Marsh got ruled out, DC spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had a freak injury and CSK workhorse Ambati Rayadu too missed out on a game.
The first seven games in the opening week have witnessed some tight games which were settled with last over finishes, a thrilling Super Over between DC and KXIP, and two one-sided games which saw the better side in MI and KXIP romp home to victory
KXIP skipper KL Rahul's record-breaking 132 against RCB, Sanju Samson's whirlwind 74 for RR against CSK, and Rohit Sharma's fiery 80 against KKR have headlined a long list of stellar batting efforts.
CSK's middle-order mainstay Faf Du Plessis dons the Orange Cap with a staggering 173 runs in 3 innings laced with 2 half tons.

There have been some great finishing acts too with Marcus Stoinis, KL Rahul, and Jofra Archer winning games for their respective teams from the jaws of defeat.



The tearaway seamers are racking up the serious pace with Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, and Navdeep Saini consistently clocking 145-150 kmp mark but the red hot pace has been directional less too with Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Lungi Ngidi being taken to the cleaners.

Death bowling has been a concern for most teams with seamers conceding 25-30 in a single over, turning games on their heads in the dying stages.

There has been some movement on offer in the early stages of the innings with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, and Deepak Chahar exploiting a bit of it. However, the seamer would like the ball to move much more at the start of the innings.

Last but not the least spin which is being rendered as a game-changing factor on turning tracks in the UAE has had a mixed bag of sorts. While DC spinners  R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, and Axar Patel and RCB tweaker Yuzvendra Chahal got their lengths right, CSK's Chawla-Jadeja pair gave too much air to get tonked all around the park.
In a nutshell, the first week of IPL has set the tone for the engrossing battles cricket fans could witness as the tournament gets deeper and progresses into the business end.