ASHES..4 IPL ........
England stars prioritise Oz Tests
THE ASHES received a boost when three more England players withdrew from the Indian Premier League to give themselves the best chance of being able to play Down Under.
Chris Woakes, Dawid Malan (both below) and Jonny Bairstow joined Jos Buttler in pulling out of the tournament that effectively put a line through the cancelled fifth Test.
Incredibly, several Indian players had already landed in Abu Dhabi to begin their quarantine before what would have been the start of day two of the Test.
“Mumbai Indians flew in
Rohit Sharma, Jasprit
Bumrah and Suryakumar
Yadav to Abu Dhabi on a private flight,” said a team statement.
“The trio, along with their families, will now undergo six days’ hard quarantine.”
Others flew out of
Manchester yesterday to ensure they’ll be out of quarantine before the tournament resumes on September 19th.
Had the India squad remained Covidfree, they could have made a ‘bubble to bubble’ transfer in the UAE without the need to quarantine. However the positive results from their support staff changed the rules.
Of the 10 England players taking part in the tournament, only Moeen Ali and Sam Curran would be close to Ashes squad selection.
ECB chief executive Tom Harrison said: “No player has told us they won’t be going.
“Things are looking better actually in terms of working closely with Cricket Australia.
“It is a complex scenario because you have different rules in different states.”