England players who had featured in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021, are likely to miss the Test series against New Zealand in order to give them a break. Notably, New Zealand will play against England in a two-match Test series which gets underway from June 2 at Lord’s London.

As per the report in BBC, England players who had played in IPL 2021 before the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 surge in the bio-bubble will not be hurriedly chosen for the Test series as well. Notably, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, and Jonny Bairstow are those players who had played in the now-postponed IPL and they are currently in the mandatory 10-day quarantine after returning to the UK as well.

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However, BBC again reported that the quarantine period is about to finish this weekend and it is unlikely that they will soon return to action again. Meanwhile, Ashley Giles, the managing director of the England men’s team, gave the hint that some new faces could be added to the squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against New Zealand as well despite being the fact that with the postponement of IPL 2021, all England players are available for selection for the series.

“What we do know and what’s not going to change is that given the weight of cricket, given the Ashes series, and we don’t know what conditions that’s going to be played in with regard to a Covid environment, we are going to need a bigger group of players. We may also choose against New Zealand to look at some new faces,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Ashley Giles as saying.

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However, the Test series will be played between England and New Zealand in June and after that, England will play against India in a five-match Test series, which is slated to begin in August as well.