Reports: At least one England player is considering pulling out of IPL 2021 after India cancels Manchester Test

The fifth and final Test match between England and India was called off due to the COVID-19 threat. Just a day before the start of the Manchester Test, junior physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive. However, he returned negative a few hours later. After a lot of deliberation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the England Cricket Board (ECB) decided to call off the match.

Interestingly, the Test match was initially postponed by a day only, but India feared they would not possibly be able to field their best possible XI. Also, the impending second half of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was scheduled, and the BCCI might have looked at the larger picture. But it seems the English players are not happy with the cancellation of the Old Trafford match and at least one player is mulling over to pull out of the UAE leg of IPL, as per reports on The Sun.

One of IPL contracted England players is unwilling to go to UAE for the T20 league. This news is likely to affect the team combination of the respective franchise as all the eight teams will look to give it their all in the second half of IPL scheduled to begin on September 19.

The equation between England and India boards has been strained since the time Ravi Shastri and his two-support staff had tested positive for COVID-19 before the start of the fourth Test. While the Leeds game went smoothly, the accusations on Shastri and skipper Virat Kohli have not stopped. Apparently, few of the Indian team members and support staff had attended a book launch event and many speculate it is from that public gathering that Shastri would have contacted the virus.

If reports in The Sun are to be believed, few members of the England team claim that they spotted some Indian players roaming around the streets of Manchester instead of staying at their team hotel.

BCCI deciding to send IPL bound players to UAE

The BCCI had made bubble arrangements at the start of the Test series and had assured of bubble-to-bubble transfers from the United Kingdom to UAE. For the same, it is making arrangements for the players’ departure. Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, and Sam Curran are the players from the Test squad who are part of IPL. Amongst these five players, one of them is not keen to board the flight to UAE.