IPL Beckons: Team India Stars Flown In From Gloomy Manchester To UAE

A day after the fifth and final Test between India and England was cancelled two hours before the scheduled start at Manchester’s Old Trafford because of COVID-19 concerns in the visitors’ camp, some of the Team India joined their IPL teams in the UAE.

Mumbai Indians were the first to spring into action as they flew in skipper Rohit Sharma, pace ace Jasprit Bumrah and Surya Kumar Yadav to their base in Abu Dhabi by a charter flight.

The trio, along with their families, underwent RT-PCR test on arrival, which came out negative, informed Mumbai Indians. They will now undergo a six-day hard quarantine, as per IPL guidelines.

Mumbai Indians also tweeted pictures of Rohit and Bumrah arriving at the team hotel with their families.

The 14th edition of IPL, which had to be postponed midway in early May due to the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India, will resume in the UAE on September 19 when Mumbai Indians take on Chennai Super Kings.

Royal Challengers Bangalore will fly in captain Virat Kohli and pacer Mohammad Siraj to Dubai by a charter flight later in the day.

The final Test was cancelled following high drama and several rounds of deliberations between the two cricket Boards. The Indian players reportedly didn’t want to take the field after their second physio Yogesh Parmar, who had worked with the cricketers, tested COVID positive on Thursday. Head coach Ravi Shastri had earlier tested positive, and was already in isolation along with bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and physio Nitin Patel.

Other IPL-bound players who will be flying from Manchester to UAE:

Delhi Capitals: Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav

Chennai Super Kings: Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Ravindra Jadeja

Sunrises Hyderabad: Wriddhiman Saha

Punjab Kings: Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami

Kolkata Knight Riders: Prasidh Krishna