CSK, DC Players Arrive in Dubai From England For UAE Leg of IPL 2021

New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals players have arrived in the UAE from the UK on Sunday for the second half of the Indian Premier League. The fifth Test match between India and England was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the Indian camp. Meanwhile, all the Indian players are tested negative but the support staff members including Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun and Yogesh Parmar are COVID positive at the moment.

CSK have released an official statement on players arrival as the franchise stated that Moeen Ali Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shardul Thakur arrived in Dubai on Saturday night while Sam Curran will join them in a couple of days.

"All of our Indian players who were part of the England Test series (Jadeja, Pujara and Thakur) along with England all-rounder Moeen Ali landed yesterday night and have joined the side. Sam Curran will be joining the team in a couple of days' time," said CSK CEO K.S. Viswanathan.

He further added: "The players who are part of the CPL - Imran (Tahir), Faf (du Plessis) and (Dwayne) Bravo - will complete the tournament and join the team in a bubble to bubble transfer."

The 2021 IPL, which was suspended in May owing to a COVID-19 outbreak in its bubble, will resume in the UAE from September 19 with Mumbai Indians facing arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings in the first clash of the second half.

For Delhi Capitals, the arriving players included Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw and Umesh Yadav and all of them underwent COVID-19 tests upon landing.

The players will be serving a six-day hard quarantine as per IPL protocols, during which they will be tested thrice.

Thereafter, the players will join the rest of the Delhi Capitals squad, who are already part of the bio-bubble.

Delhi Capitals finished runners-up in the previous edition of the league last year, losing to Mumbai Indians in the summit showdown.