Here is what former England captain Andrew Strauss has to say about IPL :- Former England Captain Andrew Strauss has come out in support of English players’ participation in IPL and said IPL experience is worth injury risk for English players. England players participating in IPL is a rarity as over the past few years the ECB has shown reluctance to send their players to play the cash-rich league.
It has mainly because of English Test season starting in Late May and also in a bid not to put workload on players and keep them fresh for international fixtures.
This time around as the Test Season in England is starting in July because of Champions Trophy, ECB were lenient and allowed their players to play the IPL. Among those were Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Eoin Morgan, Sam Billings, Chris Woakes, Tymal Mills and Jason Roy.
Stokes was 14.5 crore boy in IPL and was expected to play the role of match-winner with both bat and ball.
After a tough winter when England had a grueling series in India, and a short 3-match ODI Series in Caribbean, the English players got very little respite in between as they had to head to India for a demanding season of IPL.
It is quite natural your injury list would a long one after such an exhausting season and to no one’s surprise the inevitable happened. Ben Stokes felt discomfort in his knee and had to undergo two scans while Chris Woakes was kept out of last 2 ODIS against South Africa due to tightness in thigh muscle.
“Injuries are part and parcel of the life generally. That is the slight risk you take when you make people available for a chunk of cricket that is outside the international schedule. On one hand you weigh up the potential risk and on the other you ask what they can potentially gain from that experience.” Said Strauss.
Everything has its pros and cons. While there is workload and injuries on one side, there is invaluable experience of playing in world’s biggest T20 league and also the time spent in dressing room with best players in the business on the other.
– by Atharva Apte