Can't Expect Our Best Team To Play Every Single Game In A Busy Schedule - Ashley Giles Defends England's Rotation Policy

Ashley Giles, Managing Director of England’s men’s team and a former cricketer, has come out and explained the reasons – in an effort to defend – England’s player rest and rotation policy.

The management had recently rested key players like Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran amongst others in the Test series against India. Joe Root’s side lost the series 3-1 and have faced severe criticism for not putting the best eleven on the field.

Ashley Giles, who has spent more than a decade in the management, points out that with a spate of T20 matches and the IPL leading up to the T20 World Cup and also in the view of the Ashes, not to forget the covid bio-bubbles, it is necessary to rest players.

“We can’t expect what is considered to be our best team to play every single game. We’ve got an incredibly busy schedule from now right through until the end of the Ashes: 18 Test matches, including a very busy white-ball program, a T20 World Cup and series’ in Australia and against India,” Ashley Giles said on The Hussain and Key Cricket Show.

“And, as part of the schedule, the elephant in the room is the IPL. I know that question is going to come up, but that now has to form part of our 12-month schedule – that isn’t going away, whatever anyone thinks.

“It’s an extremely tough year. And ultimately, what we’re trying to do is find a balance in some unbelievably difficult conditions and environments – from a scheduling point of view, a Covid point of view and a workload point of view,” he added.

We want to hold both white-ball trophies: Ashley Giles

The former left-arm spinner says that the T20 World Cup is the priority – hence the players have been allowed to play in the IPL over Test cricket – and wishes for England to become the first team to hold both World Cups – 50-over and T20 – together.

Giles asserts that for the same reason, and preparation for the away Ashes, they are trying plenty of players and creating a big pool of players.

“We have two really important strategic objectives that we’re heading towards at the end of the year: the T20 World Cup and the Ashes. We’ve still got a lot left in us; we want to hold both white-ball trophies – that would be a fantastic effort for this team – and we want to win the Ashes back in Australia.

“But, after that, there is still a lot of cricket coming up and it’s about trying to find balance in an environment where it’s particularly difficult to do that. We’re going to need more players, a bigger pool of players capable of playing at this level, in order to play all of this cricket.

“We want to get to the Ashes and T20 World Cup with fit people – mentally and physically – and our biggest concern was, given the workloads, the schedule, that unless we were really proactive we wouldn’t be able to do that,” the 47-year-old further explaied.

Also Read: Sri Lanka All-Rounder Angelo Mathews Pulls Out Of West Indies Tour; To Return Home