More England players could pull out of the IPL midway: Michael Vaughan
Michael Vaughan feels one or two English players could pull out of IPL 2021 in the coming days due to the mental toll of the bio-bubble life that they have endured in the last few months.
Recently, ace English speedster and lynchpin of the Rajasthan Royals' bowling attack, Jofra Archer made himself unavailable for the first half of the tournament. He suffered a gammy elbow which was aggravated in the T20I series against India.
Interacting with Cricbuzz, Michael Vaughan said Archer could pull out of the whole tournament. He added that players and management groups need to be considerate to correctly manage mental fatigue.
"Unfortunately, for the overseas players, the IPL is such a long tournament...it wouldn't surprise me if one or two of the England players pull out of the IPL. Not the whole of it, but midway through they might say that 'look we have had enough of this bio-bubble and we need to get out of it'. You look at Jofra Archer now, he's missing with that elbow injury, that needs rest and there is no time limit on how long it's going to take. So again, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Jofra Archer misses the whole of the IPL, we'll have to wait and see," said Michael Vaughan.
The former England captain added in this regard:
"Players and the have to be true to themselves and also the management has to be true to the players. So if a player is struggling I don't think any management group around the world will be concerned if a player says 'Look I am struggling in this bubble I need to get back'."
In addition to Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler (RR), Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Jonny Bairstow (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Moeen Ali and Sam Curran (Both Chennai Super Kings) are other key English players who will feature in this year's IPL.
All of them have been part of England's tightly-packed winter, spending months hopping from one isolated environment to another.
England could have better managed key series: Michael Vaughan
Speaking further, Michael Vaughan reiterated his stance that England could have better prioritized their bilateral series throughout the winter.
According to Michael Vaughan, the two-Test series in Sri Lanka could have been put on the 'backburner' with more importance given to the India Tests.
"It's [life in bio bubble] difficult. That's why I have been very vocal about picking and choosing. You have to identify the series that really counts for you and the ones that count a little bit lesser. Like this One-Day series, I would have gone like 'let's try a few players that have been in the bubble for a long period of time'. The two Sri Lankan Tests at the start of England's winter, that were the two Tests I had put on the back burner and potentially tried some different players. I would have made sure that the 4 Tests against India were right at the key for the England team," signed off Michael Vaughan.