Flavours of Punjab - in-form home team and local Test captain add to the excitement

A long line, spanning the entire stretch of the IS Bindra Stadium's outer boundary around the main entrance, stood to buy tickets for Thursday's Qualifier 1 between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). But as Gujarat Titans (GT) entered the venue for a training session, the noise level went up manyfold.

The cheer intensified further when Shubman Gill emerged. The fanfare when teams train isn't new, but this one carried extra warmth. It was an ode to Gill, the local boy who has grown up playing here in Mohali, from his mid-teens after arriving in the city from Fazilka, a hamlet some 300km away, in Punjab.

Wednesday's appearance was his first in the region since he had been named the India Test captain. So there was this obvious interest around the prodigal son, even though the real home team - PBKS - were in the midst of their own training session about 30km away in New Chandigarh, which houses the new stadium.

Several police personnel manning the main entrance also queued up to click pictures, but their hero had given them the slip as he made his way into the main block, and to the nets behind the stadium, where he watched GT's young batters go through their drills.

Gill stood there observing, giving them words of encouragement, while gently warming up himself. He shadow-batted, and then faced some throwdowns - checking if his feet movement, bat follow-through, and everything else was in order. Ten minutes later, he was out and saw the rest of the session with his pads on, playing the role of a senior figure, as some of the others trained at the centre wicket.

There was no sign of some of the other big stars, among them Rashid Khan and B Sai Sudharsan. Ishant Sharma huffed and puffed his way through an intense 40-minute spell, head coach Ashish Nehra conducted a catching drill, and the team's physios made Instagram reels for players who came up to them requesting to time their sprints.

The intense net session was done away with following the one they had on Tuesday night in New Chandigarh. This seemed like a quiet stroll in the park - just to get the body moving, give players the feel, and get them adjusted to fielding in the evening heat.

A few hours prior to GT's training, it took a good 30 minutes to drive over from central Chandigarh to the new stadium, where queues for tickets seemed even longer, with fans calling online tickets "inconvenient" because of the need to exchange them for physical ones at the venue later. Even worse, the exercise had to be completed on a non-match day. Good luck if you're turning up on match day looking for the physical version of the tickets you had already bought.

Inside, Mumbai Indians (MI) went through their drills exactly like GT did. Except, some of the big boys were in attendance. Among them, Jasprit Bumrah the most excitable - as he challenged his mates, bowling his heart out for a good 45 minutes in near 40-degree afternoon heat. Bumrah and Trent Boult competed with each other with cranked-up intensity, troubling K Shrijith, Robin Minz and new recruit Jonny Bairstow. Then Mitchell Santner arrived and smacked the ball around.

All this as the ground staff carefully cordoned off the main squares and covered it with two layers of hessian, making the process of taking a peek at the deck virtually impossible.

The evening seemed like a blockbuster if you're a keen nets-watcher. Arshdeep Singh swung it sideways; Priyansh Arya gave scant respect to seniority as he bashed the ball; the PBKS coaches stood there applauding, while also engaging in some quiet chats with players by the side after their respective sessions.

While all of this happened, RCB were blissfully mid-air, recovering from a late-night finish, and only arriving on Wednesday evening. They will need to hit the ground running on match day, banking on intel from their analysts and their own experience of having played and won in New Chandigarh when they last played PBKS.

Come Thursday, the mood is unlikely to be this relaxed and friendly. The IPL is bracing for a full house, and hope it will be a spectacle. PBKS are playing a playoff match at their home venue for the first time. Never before have they had the kind of fanatical support like they do this year. Even during their peak year in 2014, Mohali didn't always sell out. But their exceptional season has led to a turnaround.

Over to the playoffs then. From all of this being a non-starter two weeks ago, here we are, this close to seeing if the IPL throws up a new champion. The next two days will give us some sort of an inkling.