As soon as the fifth and final Test between England and India was “cancelled”, the focus shifted to the second part of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League which is scheduled to take off in the UAE from September 19.
There were discussions and expectations that players, especially the Indian ones will be flowing to the UAE directly from Manchester and later it was reported that the players will be flying on a chartered flight.
Mumbai Indians are the first among other IPL sides to welcome their star players in skipper Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav back in the squad to restart their defence of the title.
Both Rohit and Bumrah have been the lynchpins of Mumbai Indians’ success in the history of IPL and the side have won as many as five IPL trophies after Rohit took over the reins from Ricky Ponting in 2013.
Both of them have also been the best player for India in their respective departments in the series against England the Mumbai team management would be hoping they would replicate their performances in the shortest format as well.
The Mumbai Indians will take on the Chennai Super Kings in the first encounter of the revamped version of the IPL this year.
Indian players refused to play the Manchester Test after the second physio Yogesh Parmar tested Covid-19 positive after arriving in the city for the final Test. India’s refusal to play created a chaotic situation for both the ECB and the BCCI for the final decision on the game and the series. Indian players have also been blamed for prioritising the “money” they would be earning from IPL over Test cricket by some section of UK media.