IPL 2021: Australian players concerned over India's COVID-19 situation, reveals RR's Andrew Tye

Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowler Andrew Tye has revealed that a lot of Australian players are worried about India's current COVID-19 situation.

Tye recently withdrew from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and flew back home due to personal reasons. "AJ Tye flew back to Australia earlier today due to personal reasons. We will continue to offer any support he may need," RR broke the news in a tweet on their official handle on Sunday.

"There was a number of reasons for leaving, but the main one was with the situation that has started to happen back home in Perth with a lot of cases in hotel quarantine coming out of India. Now there's been a community case in Perth governments are trying to restrict numbers coming back in, especially Western Australia.

I just thought to try and get on the front foot and get home before I got locked out of the country. It's been a long time in bubbles and hubs -- doing the calculations earlier, think I've had 11 days at home out of the bubble since August, so for me I just wanted to get home," Tye was quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, as saying in an interview with SEN Radio.

In the same interview, Tye has also revealed that a lot of Australian players have enquired about the route he has taken to fly back home.

"There's definitely concerns from the Australians. A lot of guys have been in touch today once they realised I was leaving. Some of the guys are very interested in what route I took home and other guys are just happy to make sure I'm okay. Not sure if I'll be the only one," added Tye.

Further talking about the Covid-19 situation in India, Tye said," They are having over 300,000 cases a day and they are only the ones being reported, we know there's probably a lot more than that number who can't get tested. Yes, the IPL and BCCI have done an amazing job of keeping us safe but at the same time it's tough and you also feel bad for the amount of people out there with Covid and we are still able to play cricket."

Tye is the fourth overseas player from the RR camp to pull out of the 14th edition of the tournament after the England trio of Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Liam Livingstone. RR now are left with just four overseas options in their squad: Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Jos Buttler, and David Miller.

Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) confirmed on Monday that their Australian duo of Kane Richardson and Adam Zampa are heading back home for personal reasons.

Earlier, Delhi Capitals (DC) spinner Ravichandran Ashwin announced that he would be taking a break from the IPL 2021 as he wants to support his family who are currently battling COVID-19.

"I would be taking a break from this year's IPL from tomorrow. My family and extended family are putting up a fight against #COVID19 and I want to support them during these tough times. I expect to return to play if things go in the right direction. Thank you, @DelhiCapitals," tweeted Ashwin.

With two wins in five matches, RR are placed sixth in the IPL 2021 points table.