TRIO MAKE ASHES TOP FOCUS
Stars pull out of Indian showpiece
THE Ashes received a welcome boost when three more England players pulled out of the Indian Premier League to give themselves the best chance of being able to travel and play in Australia.
Jonny Bairstow (below), Chris Woakes (bottom) and Dawid
Malan joined Jos Buttler in withdrawing from the tournament that effectively put a line through the cancelled fifth Test at Old Trafford on Friday.
Remarkably, several Indian players had already landed in Abu Dhabi to begin their quarantine ahead of the tournament before what would have been the start of day two in Manchester.
“Mumbai Indians flew in three of its Indian contingent members, captain Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav, to Abu Dhabi on a private charter flight,” said a team statement.
“The trio, along with their families, arrived on Saturday morning and will now undergo six days of hard quarantine.”
Others flew out of Manchester later yesterday in order to make sure that they will be out of quarantine by the time the postponed tournament resumes on September 19.
Of the 10 England players still taking part in the IPL, only Moeen Ali and
Sam Curran could be reasonably confident of being close to Ashes squad selection while the others will see it as the perfect lucrative tune-up for the T20
World Cup due to start in the same venues in
October.
The decision of some to miss the IPL is a sign they are planning on being away for much of the winter and this was a quarantine and commitment too many.
Players are still waiting for the precise details from Cricket Australia as to what they and their families can expect Down Under, before they make a decision on availability at the end of the month, but there have been no withdrawals yet.
One thing is certain, the tour will go ahead this winter and will not be postponed. But there can be no guarantee that it will take place either in the places or with the players originally outlined.
ECB chief executive
Tom Harrison said: “Conversations are ongoing but things are looking better in terms of working closely with Cricket
Australia.
“It is a complex scenario because you have different rules in different states with how Covid strategy is being adopted.
“No player has yet told us they won’t be going.”
The 10 England players still in the
IPL are Ali, Sam
Billings, Sam and
Tom Curran, George
Garton, Eoin Morgan,
Chris Jordan,adil
Rashid, Liam
Livingstone and Jason
Roy.