IPL 2021: Andrew Tye reveals why he decided to pull out of the tournament

Rajasthan Royals fast bowler Andrew Tye has revealed why he decided to pull out of Indian Premier League 2021. Tye stated that with a number of cases going through the roof in India and Australian government also imposing restrictions, he was afraid of being locked out of his country.

India has been hit hard by the second wave of Covid-19 as more than 3,00,000 cases are getting reported every day. On the other hand, Tye revealed that bubble fatigue was also one of the factors for his withdrawal from the IPL as he had spent only 11 days at home due to multiple bio bubbles.

“There were a number of reasons, 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 in Western Australia. There are 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,” explained Tye while talking to SEN Radio from Doha.

Tye added that playing cricket in these testing times is difficult as there is so much going on outside.

“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, I think I’ve had 11 days at home out of the bubble since August, so for me, I just wanted to get home,” 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 conceded.

On the other hand, after Andrew Tye, Australia’s spinner Adam Zampa and fast bowler Kane Richardson have decided to pull out of IPL 2021 due to Covid-19 scare. Furthermore, Delhi Capitals veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has also decided to take a break from the IPL as he wants to be with his family during these testing times.

Andrew Tye has played 27 IPL matches in which he has scalped 40 wickets at an average of 21.8 and economy rate of 8.47. Tye is known for his slower-ball variations and has a good knuckleball under his repertoire.

Meanwhile, Andrew Tye had a successful stint for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League 2020-21 season as he snared 21 wickets in the 17 matches he played and thus played a key role in taking his team to the final of the tournament.