England players unlikely to feature in rescheduled IPL: Ashley Giles
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director of men's cricket, Ashley Giles, has admitted that the English players will not miss international cricket in order to participate in the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. His statement comes after the counties offered to host the IPL season in September. Notably, England have a packed international schedule this year.
'Planning on involvement of England players in international matches'
Speaking on the schedule, Giles said, "I have mentioned to the players a couple of times, we will make difficult decisions on their workloads and well-being," Giles said. "We are planning on the involvement of England players in England matches. We have got a full Future Tours Programme, if those tours [to Bangladesh and Pakistan] are going ahead, I'd expect them to be there."
England's schedule starts with a series against New Zealand
As per the FTP, England have a packed schedule, starting from the New Zealand Test series. They have several home and away assignments lined up, including the tour to the Caribbean, T20 World Cup, and the Ashes. As of now, September seems a potential window to conduct the remaining IPL season. However, England are due to travel to Bangladesh and Pakistan for limited-overs matches.
Majority of England players have reached the UK
The majority of England players, who were part of the now-postponed IPL, have now returned to the UK. While Eoin Morgan is still in the Maldives, the rest of them took an earlier flight, and are midway through their 10-day mandatory quarantine. Notably, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, and Sam Curran might be available for selection for the Test against New Zealand, starting June 2.
'Not going to rush them back into cricket', adds Giles
"We are going to treat it on a case by case basis. All these guys have had a number of spells in quarantine and bubbles in this last period," Giles added. "Some of it's their choice, I get that. We need to look after them with the amount of cricket they've got coming up. We're not going to rush or force them back."
England counties offered to host remaining IPL matches in September
Recently, a group of English counties offered to host the remainder of the IPL 2021 season in September this year. The MCC, Surrey, Warwickshire, and Emirates Old Trafford were a part of the group that urged the ECB to extend the opportunity to the BCCI. As per the proposal, the counties wanted to accommodate the tournament in England through some flexibility in the international calendar.
IPL 2021 was postponed indefinitely
The IPL 2021 was postponed indefinitely by the BCCI after several cases of COVID-19 were reported inside the bio-secure bubbles. Last week, two positive cases were reported in KKR's camp (Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier). As a result, the RCB-KKR match was deferred. A day later, the bio-bubbles of three other franchises (CSK, SRH, and DC) were breached, resulting in the season's suspension.
