The 14th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was halted midway in May this year due to the COVID-19 fears in the bio-bubble. It will resume on September 19 in Dubai with a clash between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI).

The England and India players were supposed to fly to UAE from Manchester together in a bubble to bubble transfer, but the threat of COVID-19 cases in the visitors’ camp forced IPL teams to make their own arrangements.

The fifth and final Test between England and India got postponed for an indefinite period after the Indian physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive for the novel coronavirus ahead of the game in Manchester.

Sherfane Rutherford replaces Jonny Bairstow in SRH squad:

West Indies’ all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford will replace England’s wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow in the remainder of the IPL 2021, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) announced on Saturday.

“The explosive Caribbean is now a #Riser! Sherfane Rutherford will replace Jonny Bairstow in our squad for the second phase of #IPL2021 #OrangeArmy #OrangeOrNothing,” tweeted SRH.

https://twitter.com/SunRisers/status/143670730736307815

Bairstow pulled out of the UAE-leg of IPL 2021 along with Punjab Kings (PBKS) batsman Dawid Malan and Delhi Capitals (DC) all-rounder Chris Woakes due to personal reasons.

Talking about Rutherford, the 23-year-old has made 1102 runs in the T20 format at a strike rate of 138.26. He was part of the MI squad that won the IPL in 2020 but didn’t get a chance to field a single game. The Guyanese played seven matches for MI in IPL 2019, scoring 73 runs at a strike rate of 135.18 while also picking up a wicket.