Australia's Hazlewood concerned about COVID-19 cases at IPL side

By Sudipto Ganguly

(Reuters) - Australia's Josh Hazlewood is concerned about a COVID-19 outbreak at his Indian Premier League franchise in the United Arab Emirates, the seamer said on Monday.

Hazlewood is in England for Australia's limited-overs series, three Twenty20 matches in Southampton followed by three 50-over internationals in Manchester.

After the series he is expected to join the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in UAE, where the 13th edition of the IPL will be held from Sept. 19 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

The Indian cricket board said two players and 11 other people tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in the UAE without identifying them. Local media reported that all of them were from the CSK camp.

"At the franchise, we have a group WhatsApp, with all the information that comes through. It's obviously a little bit of a concern. You ideally would have no cases," Hazlewood told reporters on a video conference on Monday.

"They are in quarantine now ... All my focus is, obviously, on this tour at the moment. Once the IPL comes closer we will think more about that ... closer to the date we will have a chat with Cricket Australia."

England captain Eoin Morgan hit a blistering half-century as the hosts chased down a steep target to beat Pakistan by five wickets in their second T20 international on Sunday.

"Eoin Morgan just runs a really good ship in the white-ball stuff and everyone knows their roles, their confidence is always high, they always win a lot of games of cricket so they're pretty confident," Hazlewood said.

"It's obviously tough and we're coming off not much cricket ... England are flying at the moment. There's a couple of new faces we need to look at but we expect to win every game of cricket we play."

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly; editing by Ed Osmond)