Rohit, Bumrah, Suryakumar arrive in Abu Dhabi for IPL 2021

Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav have arrived in Abu Dhabi in a charter flight for the second half of the 2021 Indian Premier League, starting on September 19. The fifth and final Test between England and India in Manchester was postponed indefinitely after a COVID-19 outbreak in the visiting team's camp. Now, all Indian and England players will link up with their respective IPL squads in a day or two.

"The trio (Rohit, Bumrah and Suryakumar), along with their families, arrived today morning and will now undergo 6 days hard quarantine, starting today as per the IPL's guidelines. All members had returned negative RT PCR results before departure. A new RT PCR test was undertaken upon arrival at Abu Dhabi, which are negative as well," the franchise said in a statement on Saturday (September 11).

Royal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli and Mohammed Siraj too are scheduled to fly to Dubai later in the day. "Keeping the safety and security of our players as the utmost priority, Royal Challengers Bangalore have arranged a special charter flight for captain Virat Kohli and Mohammed Siraj to ensure their safe transit to the UAE. The players will be flying out at 11.30 PM (UK time) on Saturday and will arrive in Dubai early Sunday morning."

Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings players have already have left Manchester by Emirates Flight. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings players - Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sam Curran and Moeen Ali - are scheduled to take a commercial flight to Dubai from London on Saturday night.

"The good news is that all the players and support staff members have now tested negative for the RT-PCR for the second time. The reports arrived late on Friday evening and most of them are already on their way to Dubai for the IPL," a senior BCCI official told PTI.

All players arriving from Manchester will have to undergo a six-day quarantine before joining the bio-bubbles of their respective franchises. The players were earlier supposed to join their teams on September 15, the day after the scheduled close of the final Test. 

India were leading the five-match series 2-1 going into the final Test in Manchester. But, some of the Indian players expressed concerns about taking the field on Friday after assistant physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar tested positive for COVID-19. After Parmar tested positive, India were forced to cancel their practice session ahead of the fifth Test. The players were asked to isolate and not to step out of their rooms till the RT-PCR tests turn up negative. 

The players tested negative but with the 96-hour incubation period also factored in, they didn't want to risk testing positive. Three of India's coaching staff including head coach Ravi Shastri had tested positive for Covid-19 during the Oval Test and as a result, they did not travel to Manchester with the team.