"I think that's fair enough"- Michael Vaughan defends England players withdrawing from backend of IPL 2024 season
Former England captain Michael Vaughan believes English players were well within their rights to make themselves available for national duty by skipping the back end of the IPL 2024 season. England will be playing a five-match T20I series against Pakistan beginning May 22.
Cricket experts like Sunil Gavaskar and Irfan Pathan have criticized the decision from the ECB to call their players back and the former also felt that the players needed to be penalized.
However, speaking to Cricbuzz, Michael Vaughan explained why he felt it was completely fair for the England players to put their country first. He said:
"If you are going back to represent your country, which England players have done, I think that's fair enough. They are playing a series against Pakistan. The England players wouldn't have gone back if it wasn't for the Pakistan series."
Teams like Rajasthan Royals and the Kolkata Knight Riders may dearly miss the presence of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt respectively in the IPL 2024 playoffs. Even Royal Challengers Bengaluru are without the services of Will Jacks and Reece Topley for the same reason.
Michael Vaughan on England's T20 World Cup build-up
Michael Vaughan shed light on how England were light on preparation ahead of the 2023 World Cup and that led to their campaign ending up being a debacle. He feels a proper full-strength squad playing five T20Is against Pakistan could be a great preparation for England ahead of the World Cup next month.
On this, Vaughan stated:
"With English cricket, the defence of the 50-over World Cup was a poor one by England here in India. So I think, Jos and his team, 5 games against Pakistan, they get together. They have now gone back to 5 matches, get all the squad together, work on a bit of culture, everyone playing their right roles, I think it will give them a better chance."
England are the defending champions going into T20 World Cup 2024, having beaten Pakistan in the final of the previous edition in Australia in 2022.