‘Morgan will be available for KKR’s IPL opener’

Abu Dhabi: Kolkata Knight Riders’ star picks Eoin Morgan and Pat Cummins will both be available for selection when the two-time champions play their Indian Premier League opener despite being involved in an ODI series just days earlier, the franchise’s chief executive has said.

KKR will take on defending champions Mumbai Indians on Sept.23. The 13th edition of the cash-rich league is taking place in the UAE as it had to be moved out of India due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Morgan and Cummins, who was roped in by KKR for whopping Rs 15.50 crores, will be seen against each other in the three ODIs starting Friday at the Old Trafford.

The England-Australia ODI series will wrap up on September 16, three days before IPL 2020 starts in the UAE.

KKR CEO Mysore has said KKR have negotiated a reduced, six-day quarantine in Abu Dhabi from the usual 14 days which means Morgan, Cummins and Tom Banton can play the first game on September 23.

“While they are still negotiating with the authorities, we are reconciled to the fact that we may have to quarantine our three players,” Mysore was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“They arrive on Sept.17, but our first game is on September 23, by which time they would’ve finished their (six-day) quarantine. So it’s worked out well, and it’s good for the tournament.” Mysore added that players arriving in the IPL ‘bubble’ from another bio-secure cover, such as the England and Australia ODI series or the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), will not be expected to undergo the tournament-mandated quarantine.

“What we did was put a plan together and shared it with the medical team at the IPL,” Mysore said.

“We told them, ‘they’re in a bio-secure bubble in UK. What if we brought them on a sanitised charter flight and we took care of all the elements of immigration, testing, contactless stuff and everything to allow them to come right into a bubble here?’

“To give credit to IPL, they took it very constructively and they have a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for that, which says if you’re coming from a bubble to another bubble, you don’t need the mandatory quarantine period,” he added.

The KKR team members are staying in Abu Dhabi, but since Dubai has no mandatory quarantine unless a player tests positive, it makes things easier for KKR and their two most important overseas players, Morgan and Cummins, both of whom are currently playing the three ODI series in England and are expected to be two biggest trump cards of the team this year.

The ODI series between England and Australia end on Sept.16, and right on the next day, Mysore revealed, the plan is to bring the players in and monitor their progress, going into the most minute details of their travel from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.