IPL 2021: 5 Players Who Refused To Play In The Tournament

The IPL schedule can be sometimes hectic for the players with the long tournament getting over after two months of high intensity which might tempt players to take a break from IPL. The international schedule might take a toll on the player’s body and mindset and they could use the two months’ IPL time instead to train hard for the upcoming international matches.

A lot of players have pulled out of IPL citing various reasons in spite of being offered a lot of money and most of the reasons were to concentrate on playing for the nation which was a good sign anyway. Here are five players who refused to play in the tournament.

5 Players Who Refused To Play In The Tournament:

Kusal Perera:

Kusal Perera has been part of the IPL in the past and has played 2 games for the Rajasthan Royals scoring 14 runs in his career. He was released by the RR team ahead of the 2014 auctions and did not look like coming back in the IPL. However, in 2018, SRH missed the services of 1 year suspended David Warner and they had to change the captaincy to Kane Williamson.

They needed a dasher in the opening slot to replace David Warner and SRH approached Kusal Perera who was in excellent form in the period of time. Perera declined the offer to concentrate on domestic cricket that would earn him a place back in the Test squad. He did succeed in that part as he was recalled into the Sri Lanka test squad after a gap of more than a year.

Mitchell Marsh:

Mitchell Marsh started his IPL career for Deccan Chargers way back in 2010 before he had made his international debut. Injuries have been a major problem for him throughout his career and had to miss a lot of games due to it. He was picked by the Pune Warriors team in 2011 and played 14 games for them from 2011 to 2013. He returned again in 2016 to play for the Rising Pune Supergiants.

He started off magnificently for the Rising Pune Supergiants and produced a dream spell of bowling. He played three games and was ruled out of the remaining games due to side strain and had to miss out on the 2017 season too. He rejected big money and did not take part in the IPL 2018 to prepare for the tests and opted to play county cricket to improve his red ball game.

Tushar Deshpande:

The Mumbai pacer Tushar Deshpande who was part of the Delhi Capitals last year had rejected the offer from Kings XI Punjab to attend trials ahead of the 2019 Auctions. A lot of domestic players have attended trials before to showcase their talent but it wasn’t the case for Tushar Deshpande who instead played for his club team in a small tournament.

He mentioned that he had been called by Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals for trials and he has never attended that. He believes in giving more than 100% to the team every time he steps on the field and backed himself to get picked in the auction if he performs well on the ground automatically.

Ravi Bopara:

The England all-rounder Ravi Bopara had been part of the Kings XI Punjab unit in the earlier 2009 and 2010 seasons. Since the England cricket board had not allowed the centrally contracted players to take part in the IPL, Bopara had always been in danger of losing his national contract and he did not want to take part in the IPL 2011 despite being offered a lot of money.

Bopara had rejected a lucrative offer from the Mumbai Indians to replace Davy Jacobs who was ruled out owing to a hip injury in the 2011 IPL season. However, the ECB has changed their plans now and Bopara turned out to play in the IPL again for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2015 IPL. The 35-year-old last played for England 6 years back in 2015.