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Malan, Bairstow, Buttler, Woakes ( Image Credit: Twitter)
The last few months haven't really been great for English cricket. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that they were humiliated by Australia in the recently concluded Ashes 2021-22. Thus, this led to them being severely criticized.
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As a matter of fact, several cricket pundits and experts cited the Indian T20 league as a reason for England's poor returns in the longest format of the game. Nevertheless, in what can be called a major development, England's Test players are all set to miss the latter stages of the Indian T20 league. 2022 According to a report by Cricbuzz, the ECB are expected to pull England's Test players out of the final phase of the league.
The reason being that they have a Test series against New Zealand at home. This three-match Test series starts from June 2 at Lord's. Although the dates for the Indian T20 league haven't officially been disclosed yet, it is expected to commence on March 27.
Thus, it will seemingly take place till the end of May. This means that the tournament would get over just a few days before the Test series. Besides, taking the current COVID-19 situation into consideration, players will have to quarantine themselves for a few days.
Although there hasn't been anything official about the same, several franchises have already been told that the red-ball players from England will not be available for the latter stages of the tournament. Besides, the players need red-ball preparation before the series against the Test Championship winners.
Players from England's Test squad who have registered for the mega auction includes the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Mark Wood, Dawid Malan, Ollie Pope, Craig Overton, Sam Billings and Dan Lawrence.
Earlier, following the Ashes debacle, Michael Atherton had spoken about how a few English players might miss international duties for the Indian T20 league. “The leading multi-format players are paid seven-figure sums, but, incredibly, the ECB washes its hands of them for two months of the year during the Indian Premier League. Players should not miss international duty to play in the IPL, nor be rested and rotated to allow them to play elsewhere. The carry-on during the winter, and at the start of the English summer, should not happen again," said Michael Atherton