Rajasthan Royals play two IPL 2020 home games in Guwahati, face Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders

Jaipur-based Rajasthan Royals (RR) will be travelling to Guwahati in Assam for two home games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 edition. Led by Australia's Steve Smith, Rajasthan Royals face Delhi Capitals on April 5 and then take on Kolkata Knight Riders four days later on April 9 at Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati. Rjasthan Royals tweeted that the move will help in expanding cricket's footprint in Northeast India as the region will host IPL matches for the first time ever.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday issued a press release giving details of the matches and venue. "The Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati will play host to two home games of Rajasthan Royals in the VIVO IPL 2020. They will now play Delhi Capitals & Kolkata Knight Riders on April 5th & April 9th respectively in Guwahati. Both games will have an 8 PM IST (Indian Standard Time) start," the BCCI statement read.

The Royals are bringing the IPL to the Northeast for the very first time, expanding cricket's footprint in the region. 

See you in April, Guwahati! #HallaBol | #RoyalsFamily pic.twitter.com/tSnguwH46y — Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) February 27, 2020

The Indian cricket board also added that the six IPL 2020 games scheduled for an afternoon start will be played at 4 pm while the evening games will begin at 8 pm.

Rajasthan Royals, winner of the IPL inaugural edition in 2008, start their 2020 campaign against the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings, who have won the T20 tournament thrice in 2010, 2011 and 2018, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on April 2 (Thursday). IPL 2020 kickstarts on March 29 with the first match between Mumbai Indians (MI) and CSK at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

The wait is over!

matches 
home venues 
#RoyalsFamily

Our #IPL2020 journey! #HallaBol | #IPLFixtures pic.twitter.com/fYtLUWBUfB — Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) February 27, 2020

The franchise earlier decided to use the facilities at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium for a three-day camp that will help them get a hang of conditions in what will be their second home ground.

According to news agency IANS, Rajasthan Royals team boys will train from Thursday to Saturday in Guwahati with Robin Uthappa being one of the big names who will be a part of the training sessions which will be overseen by Head of Cricket Zubin Bharucha, batting coach Amol Muzumdar and fielding coach Dishant Yagnik.

"The boys will train from Thursday to Saturday with Uthappa definitely being a part of the camp. Some other big domestic names might be there, but it also depends on how they are placed with their Ranji Trophy teams which will be battling it out in the semi-finals. The whole idea is to get a hang of conditions because if we get the clearance from the court, it will be our second home ground," IANS quoted a Rajasthan Royals source as saying.

Rajasthan Royals Team: Steve Smith (captain), Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Robin Uthappa, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Shashank Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anirudha Joshi, Tom Curran, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Anuj Rawat