The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), after the announcement of three English players pulling out of phase 2 of IPL 2021 has announced that T20 World Cup-bound England players will not be available for the IPL playoffs.
The decision has put the franchises in a troublesome position as big names like Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Chris Woakes and Tom Curran will be missing the IPL playoffs.
One of the franchise officials said, “I spoke to our contracted player in England on Thursday evening and he confirmed his arrival to UAE on 15th September & also requested us to make arrangements for his partner whom he said will be joining with him. We agreed on the same. And on Saturday, we were informed that he is not coming. Coaches, management all are terribly upset. This is completely unprofessional and against the spirit of our contracts. We have also written to BCCI about it, see we understand these circumstances are unprecedented for the players. They continuously stay in Bubbles, suffer from mental fatigue, we completely understand that and empathize with them. But they need to understand we too are in the same boat and these last-minute issues are very difficult to manage”
The decision came forward as the ECB decided that they want their full squad to be available for the two-match T20I series against Pakistan. The series will start from 9th October and the IPL playoffs are scheduled to begin from 10th October.
The ECB also wants every player available for the two warm matches that they have scheduled in the UAE.
As for last-minute replacements, Sunrisers Hyderabad has announced Sherfane Rutherford as a replacement for Bairstow & Punjab Kings has roped in Aiden Markram for Dawid Malan, Delhi Capitals is yet to announce a replacement for Chris Woakes.