England Stars To Miss Start Of English Summer to participate in the IPL

As many as eight England players will miss the start of the English summer to participate in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). All the eight players recently played in England’s tour of the Caribbeans. The players are Moeen Ali (Royal Challenges Bangalore), Jonny Bairstow (Sunrisers Hyderabad), David Willey, Sam Billings (both Chennai Super Kings), Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes (both Rajasthan Royals) and Sam Curran (Kings XI Punjab).

Apart from the aforementioned players, the likes of Harry Gurney, Joe Denly and Liam Livingstone, who are not part of the England squad, are also set to play in the competition. The first round of the County Championship Division One will start on April 5. On the other hand, the twelfth edition of the IPL will start on March 23 which effectively rules out the England players’ participation in the domestic competition.

The England stars, who are part of the ODI squad, will also leave the IPL early due to international commitments and to prepare for World Cup 2019. England travel to Ireland to play one-off ODI in Dublin on May 3. After the one-off ODI, England also play Pakistan in a limited-overs series that starts on May 5 before starting the preparation for the World Cup that starts on May 30.

Last month, the BCCI released the schedule of the first 17 games while the whole schedule is still subject to the announcement of the Lok Sabha election dates.Once the election date is announced, the BCCI will address any issues with the first two weeks and will also prepare a schedule for the remainder of the season working with the local authorities around the polling dates.

This is the first time the IPL is being held entirely in India despite the elections. In 2009, the BCCI had shifted the whole tournament to South Africa. Five years later, the initial part of the tournament was played in UAE before returning to India.

According to the released schedule, a total of 17 matches will be played during this 2 weeks period across the 8 home venues of the respective franchises. Defending champions Chennai Super Kings will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in a mouth-watering season-opener.