It had been a really long break for Indian as well as many international cricketers with the Covid-19 pandemic bringing a complete standstill to cricketing activities for more than a quarter beginning March this year. However, the long haitus away from green turf will end soon for the top global T20 stalwarts as the thirteenth edition of the IPL gets underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September 19.

Kings Eleven Punjab skipper KL Rahul was all excited and happy in getting through his first outdoor training session in the UAE with his team mates and took to his social media account to share some pics. Rahul looked extremely happy while meeting his willow with the red cherry after more than five months. The wicket-keeper batsman captioned his post 169 days and its good to be back, his delight of getting some practice after a long break away from the sport.


The 28-year-old Karnataka batsman will skipper an IPL franchise for the first time in his career as he dons the captaincy hat for KXIP. KXIP also have a new coaching staff led by former India captain, Anil Kumble.

Kings XI Punjab have some really big T20 stalwarts in their ranks with big-hitting Jamaican opener Chris Gayle and the belligerent Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. Apart from KL Rahul, they have some really good batsman in their team with Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh and others.

KXIP's former skipper Ravichandran Ashwin moved out to Delhi Capitals ahead of this year's campaign. The will face his former team on his very first match of the tournament.