The Curious Case Of Pat Cummins Return To The Second Half Of The Ipl

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, which is going to be held in the UAE in the month of September-October. The Cricket Australian Board are yet to decide that whether or not to let other Australian players participate in the cash-rich league and spend more time in the stricter bio-bubbles.

It was decided on Saturday in a BCCI meeting that IPL would be resuming in September in the UAE. They were 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. But during a recent question and answer live session on his youtube channel, when he was asked about the future of his team’s performance, Pat replied that even after losing 5 matches out of the total seven that they have played he was finding his ground in the tournament, which hinted towards 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 were forced to serve a quarantine period for their 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 the COVID-19 in the country.

Its the job of the Cricket Australian Board and the BCCI to ensure players that they would be mentally fine before the World Cup, which might happen in the UAE as well if the COVID-19 situation in India worsens.

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 wont be available.

Australia is supposed to tour West Indies from late June and would also have a test series against Afghanistan and then the Ashes series.

They could also have a short series with Bangladesh in August but that has not been confirmed yet. Moreover, the board of Bangladesh is planning for five Twenty20 matches series.

The current IPL season has 31 matches remaining.