Australia's Kane Richardson to miss IPL 2020, RCB bring in Adam Zampa as replacement

In yet another blow to the IPL 2020, Australia's Kane Richardson is set to miss the upcoming tournament in UAE. Richardson who belonged to Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore has been replaced by another Australian - Adam Zampa. While the reason for Richardson's absence from the IPL 2020 is unknown, the franchise announced Aussie spinner Zampa as his replacement on Monday night. 

Richardson is currently a part of the preliminary Australian squad touring England for ODI and T20 series. Interestingly, earlier in the day, Richardson's teammate Josh Hazlewood had expressed 'concerns' over participating in the IPL after 12 CSK players were infected with COVID-19. Hazlewood remarked that the players participating in the IPL 2020 would 'touch base' with Cricket Australia after the clash against England and before travelling to the UAE. 

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Suresh Raina pulls out of IPL 2020

In a massive jolt to the Chennai Super Kings, veteran batsman Suresh Raina pulled out of the upcoming tournament in UAE on Saturday. The franchise's CEO had confirmed Raina's return to India, however, he refrained from revealing the reason behind the batsman's withdrawal. Sources have now reported that the CSK star pulled out of the IPL 2020 due to the COVID threat that hit the franchise on Friday as 12 members were infected with the virus. Raina has travelled back to India to be with his wife and his two children as the virus hit the franchise just 3 weeks before IPL 2020 commenced. Apart from this, Raina was also grieving the loss of his uncle who was killed in a robbery 10 days back.

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As the virus threat looms over CSK, veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh, who is yet to travel to the UAE, is likely to skip the tournament. Sources have added that the spinner is in two minds whether to travel to the Middle East and join the franchise or not. Due to the virus threat, CSK's quarantine period has also been extended by another week. 

Earlier on Friday, PTI reported that 12 members of the MS Dhoni-led franchise had tested positive for the novel Coronavirus. On Saturday, another player of the franchise had contracted the infection. The BCCI on Saturday confirmed that 13 personnel have been infected with the virus including two players. The BCCI has also informed that a total of 1988 RT-PCR Tests have been conducted between August 20-28 and that all affected personnel and their close contacts are 'asymptomatic' and have been isolated. 

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IPL 2020 in UAE

The cash-rich tournament, which was earlier postponed, has been moved to the UAE due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation in India. The tournament is all set to start on September 19 while the final will be played on November 10. The BCCI has already issued an SOP for the tournament and has also allowed COVID-19 replacement during the tournament. Recently, Dream11 acquired the title sponsorship rights for IPL 2020 for a whopping amount of Rs 220 crore after Vivo's exit. This year's edition will also feature COVID replacements that have been allowed by the governing body in view of the pandemic. 

READ | IPL 2020: Josh Hazlewood Admits He's 'concerned' On Joining CSK Squad After COVID-19 Cases

RCB Full Squad

Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Gurkeerat Mann, Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Dale Steyn, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Chris Morris, Pavan Deshpande Parthiv Patel, Joshua Philippe, Shahbaz Ahamad.