IPL 2021 – South Africans set to miss 1st IPL Game: Four IPL franchises will miss their South African stalwarts in the opening game of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Kagiso Rabada (Delhi Capitals), Quinton de Kock (Mumbai Indians), Anrich Nortje (Delhi Capitals) and David Miller (Rajasthan Royals) are part of the South Africa ODI squad for the upcoming series against Pakistan. They will play the three-match series before leaving for India for IPL 14. “Ngidi will join the team only after April 5.” CSK CEO Kasi Vishwanathan told InsideSport.
It is worth noting that out of the four Proteas’, it is the DC pacers who will be missed the most. Rabada and Nortje form DC’s lethal fast bowling unit. The duo played a crucial role to lead the Capitals to their maiden IPL final last year. Together, they were the second-highest wicket-taking pair with 52 wickets to their name.
South Africa will play Pakistan in a three-ODI series starting April 2. The second ODI would be played on fourth while the last would be played on seventh.
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IPL 2021: South African players set to miss opening matches due to quarantine norms?
Once the players join their respective sides, they are likely to undergo a week-long quarantine put in place by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to minimise the risk of Covid-19. However, it is likely that the IPL franchise might exploit the bubble-to-bubble transfer rule to make the players available.
Situation 1 – If players are not transferred bubble to bubble – they will have to go under quarantine for 7 days post-arrival. This means they will lose a minimum of two games before they are allowed to play in IPL 2021.
Situation 2 – If franchises arrange for a chartered plane, the players will not have to serve the quarantine and will be available for the opening games. But as things stand, there is no update on this so far.
It seems CSK is ready to wait for their Proteas man as Vishwanathan said Ngidi will not be part of the opening game against Delhi Capitals on April 10.
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“Ngidi will have to follow the same guidelines as others and will be put in quarantine once he arrives. Therefore he will not be available for selection for the opening game,” Vishwanathan said.
Meanwhile, DC said they have no update on Rabada and Nortje’s arrival.
IPL 2021 DC squad:
Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Ishant Sharma, R Ashwin, Lalit Yadav, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Pravin Dubey, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Chris Woakes, Daniel Sams, Steve Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Sam Billings
IPL 2021 CSK squad:
MS Dhoni (C and WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, N Jagadeesan, Faf Du Plessis, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sam Curran, Ravi Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Mitchell Santner, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur, Karn Sharma, KM Asif, Imran Tahir, R. Sai Kishore, Deepak Chahar, Lungi Ngidi, Moeen Ali, Krishnappa Gowtham, Harisankar Reddy, Bhagvath Varma and Cheteshwar Pujara
