England internationals Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes joined Dawid Malan in pulling out of the second half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 due to personal reasons. Just 10 English players will now be participating in the cash-rich tournament in the United Arab Emirates.

Bairstow and Woakes both played the fourth Test against India at The Oval and will now make themselves available next for the T20 World Cup after being selected in England’s 15-man preliminary squad.

While few of England’s white-ball specialists will return to their country, the English players who are also in the Test team are due to depart for the Ashes series Down Under after the T20 World Cup.

Malan was the first to withdraw his name from IPL 2021 on Saturday and was replaced by South African Aiden Markram in the Punjab Kings squad. Ben Stokes (Rajasthan Royals) and Jos Buttler (RR) had already withdrawn, while Jofra Archer (RR) is out until 2022 with an elbow injury.

There will still be 10 England players who will take part in the IPL 2021.

Moeen Ali (Chennai Super Kings) and Sam Curran (CSK) are set to leave for Dubai soon and will be joined by Tom Curran (DC), George Garton (Royal Challengers Bangalore), Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Chris Jordan (PBKS), Adil Rashid (PBKS), Liam Livingstone (RR), Sam Billings (DC) and Jason Roy (SRH).

IPL 2021 was initially postponed indefinitely after just 29 matches in May due to the second wave of Covid-19 in India.

But the Indian cricket board (BCCI) was able to find out a window to slot in the remaining 31 games to complete the season and thus, decided to take the tournament to the UAE where it will be played from September 19 to October 15 in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Oman.