Many of England’s all-format regular players have withdrawn from this year’s IPL as a result of bubble fatigue and also due to the resulting long winter.
Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes and Dawid Malan have joined Jos Buttler in confirming their withdrawals. Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes had pulled out before these players followed them.
Malan will be replaced at Punjab Kings for the rest of the season by Aiden Markram.
Bairstow (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Woakes (Delhi Capitals), Malan and Buttler (Rajasthan Royals) have all been named in England’s T20 World Cup squad and might expect to be named in England’s Ashes tour party, too. As a result, they face the situation of more than four months away from home including time in quarantine as they move from country to country. Buttler and Woakes are the fathers of very young children, with Buttler having just welcomed his second child before the fourth test of India and England.
It has come to light in recent days that all players heading to the IPL (which resumes on September 19) would be required to undergo six days of quarantine. This may well have been a contributory factor in the cancellation of the Manchester Test.
Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, George Garton, Eoin Morgan, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy are the England players that are still expected to participate in the IPL. Some are expected to fly to the UAE today (Saturday) on a commercial flight. One or two others may not leave until after T20 Finals Day (on September 18). From that group of players, only Sam Curran and Moeen( Both being CSK players) are expected to be named in the Ashes touring party, though it would be no surprise at all if Moeen, a father of two young children, backs out from that.
Speaking about the upcoming Ashes tour, Tom Harrison, ECB chief executive, told Sky Sports on Friday: “Now that this Test series has come to an early conclusion, that becomes priority number one for us to work through with the players. It’s a conversation which now takes the centre stage, because it’s looming large on the horizon.”
These all events show clearly that players are not willing to exhaust themselves playing endless tournaments,no matter how big the tournament is.
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