England Test players expected to miss the latter stages of the 2022 IPLย
England's Test players might be forced to miss out on the business end of the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League. The England Cricket Board are expected to recall their players in order to prepare for their home season that kicks off with a three-match series against New Zealand.
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While the dates for IPL 2022 have not been decided, the tournament is slated to kick start from March 27. The 64-match extravaganza involving 10 franchises is expected to conclude in the final week of May. Any member of the Test squad involved in the playoffs would have minimal time to return to England and prepare for red ball cricket.
The series against New Zealand begins with the first Test at Lord's on June 2. While there has been no official communication between the parties involved, the franchises understand at some level that they should be prepared to lose their English players in the latter stages of the tournament.
According to Cricbuzz, sources close to several Test players also feel they could be recalled early in a bid to ramp up their preparations against the World Test champions.
England board might ask players to compete in a championship match before New Zealand series
A total of 22 English players have registered themselves for the upcoming mega auction. Out of those, a handful are currently in the side's Test plans, namely Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood, Dawid Malan, Ollie Pope, Craig Overton, Sam Billings and Dan Lawrence. Jos Buttler has already been retained by the Rajasthan Royals while Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer did not put their names forward for the auction.
The primary source of red-ball practice for the players comes in the form of the county championship. The players would have to be back home before May 19, to compete in the championship round before the New Zealand series.
WTC 2021-23 points table: https://t.co/XRRqBfLu6E
Former batter David Gower has recently criticized the culture where the IPL holds more precedence than national red-ball cricket. While speaking to The Telegraph, he said:
"What good is that to English Test cricket? This is the oldest, most important form of the game. We need to defend it. We need an England team that plays it well - not languishing at the foot of the World Test Championship."
The Three Lions are currently at the bottom of the current World Test Championship cycle with only 10 points, which is 9.25 per cent of the total possible points. Apart from the six defeats, they have also been docked 10 points for maintaining a slow over rate.