Eight of England's 11 IPL players arrive in UK, to undergo 10-day quarantine

Eight of England’s 11 Indian Premier League participants returned to London on 5th May 2021 and are beginning a 10-day hotel quarantine. Most of the countries have either banned entry for those travelling from India or are planning for it. While the suspension of the IPL left Australians in limbo due to the same reason, England players were lucky as the United Kingdom has allowed entry for its resident or citizens, who must comply with 10-day quarantine and two tests during the period.

Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy, Delhi Capitals’ Chris Woakes, Tom Curran and Sam Billings, Chennai Super Kings’ Sam Curran and Moeen Ali, and Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler are the eight English stars who flew from India.

As soon as the confirmation of the suspension due to players from three separate franchises reporting positive cases inside their bubbles arrived, there was a rush to book flights back to London.

While Buttler, Woakes, Roy, Bairstow, Billings, Ali and Sam, and Tom Curran were all successful in securing tickets, three players were left behind (Kolkata Knight Riders captain Eoin Morgan and the Punjab Kings duo of Dawid Malan and Chris Jordan). They are expected to fly out of India tomorrow. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Liam Livingstone had withdrawn from IPL 2021 on April 20, citing bubble fatigue.

It was always going to be difficult to continue the IPL: Chris Jordan

Meanwhile, Chris Jordan accepted that once three franchises reported cases inside their camps, the postponement of the tournament was inevitable.

“These are tricky times, you see the news and you hear things that are happening and it’s a real shame to see what the people in India are going through,” he told PA news agency.

“You monitor the situation on a daily basis and everyone has done everything possible to keep the bubbles secure. I would say I’ve felt safe the whole time here; they have so many things put in place and precautions being taken. The next step now is getting out safely and I’m sure they’ll see to that as well, but it might take another day or two.

“Obviously the last couple of days some new cases came to the fore, a couple of bubbles were breached, and that kind of thing starts to dominate conversations. It was always going to be difficult to continue and I think in the end the right call was made so people can get home to be with their families and look after loved ones,” he said.