Australian Pacer Pat Cummins, who was a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders franchise in this year’s now-suspended IPL, is most probably going to miss the second half of the season that is going to be held in the UAE in September-October. The Cricket Australian Board is yet to decide whether or not to let other Australian players participate in the cash-rich league and spend more time in stricter bio-bubbles.
It was decided on May 29, 2021, in a BCCI meeting that the IPL would be resuming in September in the UAE. The Board was forced to suspend the league in the beginning of this month after the surge in the cases of Covid-19 inside the Bio-bubble.
According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, Cummins, who has a multi-dollar contract with the KKR franchise, won’t return in the second half of the tournament. However, during a recent live Q-n-A session on his YouTube channel, when asked about the future of his team’s performance, he replied that even after losing five matches out of the total seven that KKR has played, he was finding his ground in the tournament; this hinted at the fact that he might return for the second half.
The Cricket Australian Board will have to work out a plan to manage the bio-bubble fatigue ahead of the World Cup T20, which will most likely take place in India in the month of October-November.
The whole IPL Australian contingent, which consisted of 40 members, was forced to serve a quarantine period after its arrival back home. They quarantined in Maldives for two weeks as there were travel restrictions for passengers coming from India due to the second wave of Covid-19 in the country.
It’s the job of the Cricket Australian Board and the BCCI to ensure that players are mentally fit before the World Cup, which might happen in the UAE as well if the Covid-19 situation in India doesn’t improve.
England players are most likely to be unavailable for the second half of the IPL season as their director, Ashley Giles, has already made it clear that due to a busy international schedule from June, the players won’t be available.
Australia is supposed to tour West Indies from late June, play a test series against Afghanistan, and then the Ashes series. They could also have a short series with Bangladesh in August. Moreover, the Bangladesh cricket board is planning for a five Twenty20 matches series.
The current IPL season has 31 matches remaining.