The IPL 2020 is scheduled to start from September 19 in the UAE with defending champions Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings facing off each other in the campaign opener in Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, the players of England and Australia who are playing a limited-overs series in England will join their respective squads after the series is over.

As per a report in Mumbai Mirror, the England and Australia players to travel UAE via chartered flights. Seven different franchisees will bring their 22 overseas players directly to the UAE via a charter flight from Manchester.

England, Australia Players To Travel UAE Via Chartered Flights

“It has all been taken care of. The idea is that they are not outside of the bubble. If we had flown them by commercial flights, they would have had to undergo quarantine. And cost-wise also it would have been dearer as each player will have to be flown by business class. Close to Rs 1 crore for 22 players is not much I suppose,” the official told Mumbai Mirror.

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Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders have a strong contingent of overseas players from England and Australia. While KKR has Eoin Morgan, Pat Cummins and Tom Banton, Rajasthan have Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer. Smith will also lead the side in this IPL.

Meanwhile, the IPL governing council announced the schedule of IPL 2020 on September 6, Sunday. The 56 matches in the league stage will be played across three venues (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah). The dates and venues for the IPL playoffs and the final will be announced in due course.

Certain big players from various franchisees have pulled out from IPL 2020 even before the tournament started citing personal reasons.

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Earlier BCCI roped in Dream XI as the official sponsor for IPL 2020 after VIVO pulled out due to political tensions between China and India across the border.