India Premier League 2024 is all set to begin today. Within the next few hours, the cricketing world will get occupied with the most successful and popular franchise league. The fan wars will start within the country and the fans, and friends who all come together to watch Men in Blue, will now get divided to support their team, and have a go at the others. IPL is an important part of the Indian cricket, as it is the reason why the Indian board is the richest board in world. Hence, the importance of IPL is of the highest order for Indian cricket.

But more importantly this edition of the Indian Premier League is more valuable for the fact that the T20 world cup lies just ahead of the IPL. The league is the last assignment for every player who is aiming for the T20 world cup. And it's the last assignment before one reaches to the grandest stage for the shortest format of the cricket. And therefore, it has to be more than just the entertainment to prepare for the obstacles one might face in the world cup. And with it, its equally important to have a check on workload management of the players.

Specifically knowing India's failure in the ICC tournaments in spite of reaching there almost every time, this tournament becomes even more vital. It's a great chance to redeem the 2023 final heartbreak and WTC 2023 final loss by clinching on to the 2024 T20 title. That's the exact reason why most of the international stars who backed out last year from the league to focus of ICC tournaments, are now back to play the IPL knowing it's role for the preparation of T20. For India, this tournament becomes even more important knowing the fact that it could potentially be the last chance for their heroes in the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to clinch the ICC title.

It goes on to explain an unwritten worry of managing the workload of players playing the same. A 2 month long league, right before the ICC tournament, gives a good practice but also comes with the repercussions of mental and physical fatigue. While fatigue can still be managed at times, any injury in the tournament could never be managed. The solution to it is restricting the number of matches one plays, thereby keeping themselves fit to play without any risk of injury. The overseas players can do it knowing there won't be any action on them, but the Indian players can't.

The risk of playing all the matches also adheres to the players getting exposed to their strengths and weaknesses whom the opposite teams would carefully observe by playing along with the Indian players in the league. The risk, however also comes up with an advantage of knowing the skill sets of opponents one has to face in the world cup. Also the league will help players get right in the zone of T20's before the world cup. Unlike the WTC, when one within a span of 2 weeks, you have to switch to tests from T20's.

Here the mindset will be similar going ahead, the only difference would be of the time zones in which the IPL is played, and the T20 world Cup would be played. The final of IPL being played on 26th May, and the first India match with our arch rivals Pakistan on 5th June, give a gap of only 10 days for the players. In this time, they have to rejuvenate, get over their jet lag and acclimatise to the conditions in United States, countering the hot conditions back in India. The best possible chance for India to work it out will be when most of senior Indian players won't be a part of any knockouts of IPL, giving them some more time to spend and acclimatise in the US.

And keeping all this in the mind, should the inception of the largest event in franchise cricket happen. Whether it will happen or not, only time will tell. But one thing everyone can be sure about is that the most popular franchise will be as entertaining as it always was. It will give one a chance to see their heroes like MS Dhoni in action again. It will also see youth like Ruturaj Gaikwad lead a strong franchise like Chennai Super Kings with MS Dhoni in the side. It will show the Indian skipper, the only other captain except Dhoni to win 5 titles, play under a man he groomed. A blend of youth and experience, challenging world cricket stars in style is what world will witness. And as every year, one expects to see as many new youngsters rising, to be the stars of future. We look forward to a couple of months of quality cricket.