Some of the recent reports are suggesting that the England players who have been chosen in the T20 World Cup squad will unavailable for the playoffs of the second phase of the Indin Premier League (IPL) 2021, despite the ft both tournaments will be taking place in the UAE. According to the earlier reports, several of the England players have already opted out of the IPL 2021, which begins on September 19 with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) clashing with one another.
The reason given for the withdrawal of players like Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan is mostly that they want to be mentally fresh for the T20 World Cup 2021 and spend time with their families. The reports say that England will be playing a couple of T20Is in Pakistan on October 14 and 15 and will arrive in the country on October 9 to prepare.
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Both matches will be played in Rawalpindi and are seen as England’s build-up to the T20 World Cup. The team will also play a couple of warm-up games in UAE and hence the team management wants all the players available.
The England players’ IPL commitments will end at the conclusion of the group stages on October 8. The first qualifier will be played on October 10 and the eliminator will be played on October 11. The second qualifier is scheduled to be played on October 13 and the final will be played on October 15. As it stands, franchises that might qualify for the playoffs stage might request special permission to keep their England players longer, though it remains to be seen whether ECB would agree or not.
The most hard-hit franchise would be MS Dhoni’s CSK, which has Sam Curran and Moeen Ali and is looking good to qualify for the knockouts with 5 wins in 7 matches already. Tom Curran is playing for Delhi Capitals who currently sit top of the table and look well placed to make the knock-out stages too.
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Only RCB is one franchise, whose England player Georgie Garton is not named in England’s T20 World Cup squad. England’s opening group game of the World Cup is on October 23 against West Indies.
