Players rush from England to join IPL bubble in the UAE

Twenty-four hours after the Manchester Test was cancelled, majority of the IPL players from India and England had left English shores for the UAE to take part in the lucrative franchise league that resumes on September 19.

Twenty-four hours after the Manchester Test was cancelled, majority of the IPL players from India and England had left English shores for the UAE to take part in the lucrative franchise league that resumes on September 19. Some like Mumbai Indians’ Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav have already joined the team’s base in the UAE.

Rohit Sharma arrives in Abu Dhabi with his wife and daughter.  (Mumbai Indians)

“Back home”, Sharma tweeted, posing with his family on Saturday afternoon. “Feels good to be back,” tweeted Bumrah. Mumbai Indians flew their players by chartered flight and declared that “all members had returned negative RT PCR results before departure and new RT PCR test, undertaken upon arrival at Abu Dhabi, came out negative as well”.

The test Covid reports of all the Indian players in the Test squad returned negative on Friday evening. With no Covid restrictions in place in England, it was decided that players will leave England for their respective IPL bases where they will serve six days of mandatory quarantine. “That was the best way to try and break the chain of infections, if any. To expect players to stay on in England for four more days and wait for a bubble-to-bubble transfer didn’t make sense anymore,” a BCCI official said.

The six-day quarantine rule led to some pull outs. England trio Jonny Bairstow (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Chris Woakes (Delhi Capitals) and Dawid Malan (Punjab Kings) decided to give the IPL second phase a miss. It isn’t known if the three opted out after consulting the English Cricket Board to manage workload. All three are expected to feature in the Ashes series at the year-end.

With both the T20 World Cup (Oct-Nov in the UAE) and the Ashes to be played in a strict bio-bubble, players choose family time over more bubble life. “Dawid Malan will not be travelling to UAE for the remainder of IPL. He will be taking some time off to be with his family ahead of the #T20WorldCup and Ashes,” Punjab Kings said in a statement. South Africa’s all-format batter Aiden Markram was named the replacement.

Like Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore will also fly their players Virat Kohli and Mohammed Siraj by chartered flight “keeping the safety and security as utmost priority”. They are expected to reach Dubai early on Sunday.

Five Chennai Super Kings players in England - Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur, Sam Curran and Moeen Ali - are also expected to reach the UAE early on Sunday. They would be taking commercial flights.

The three Punjab Kings players in the Indian Test side - KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Mohammed Shami - are also taking commercial flights out of England. England players in the franchise, none from the Test side, will travel later.

As many as six Indian Test players - Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Umesh Yadav and Axar Patel - play for Delhi Capitals. They will join their IPL bubble on Sunday.

Watching this swift departure of players from England after the Test was called off, many ex-English cricketers claimed that IPL, rather than health concerns, was behind the Indian players’ refusal to play the final Test. “IPL teams chartering planes … 6 days quarantining required in the UAE ... 7 days till the tournament starts !!!! Don’t tell me the Test was cancelled for any other reason but the IPL...” tweeted former England skipper and TV pundit, Michael Vaughan.

This charge was dismissed by ECB chief executive Tom Harrison. “This is not a situation which has been created by the rescheduled IPL... That’s not the case,” Harrison told BBC on Friday. “India simply felt that they got to a point where they weren't able to take to the field. That is understandable.”