The Indian Premier League this season has witnessed many players backing out prior to the start of the tournament. Earlier this week, we saw Suresh Raina back out for personal reasons.
Likewise, we even expect Ben Stokes to not feature this year as the all-rounder is in New Zealand with his father who has been diagnosed by cancer. Similarly, another player has recently backed out from the cash-rich league. This time its Aussie speedster Kane Richardson, who has decided not to take part in the IPL 2020 this year.
Royal Challengers Bangalore roped in the fast bowler in the 2020 IPL auction. The management expected a lot out of him one of the key players of the fast bowling unit. But with Richardson backing out, responsibility will be on Dale Steyn, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini going ahead.
Disappointed to miss the IPL this year: Kane Richardson
Kane Richardson backed out for personal reasons as his wife his due to give birth to their first child. It’s something Kane doesn’t want to miss out on as he wants to be with his family during this auspicious moment. He’s hopeful that despite missing the IPL this year, there will be more opportunities going ahead this year.
“I’m disappointed to miss the IPL but hopefully there are opportunities ahead for that, I don’t think I’d be able to live with missing the birth of my first child I can be home and support my wife as best I can, and hopefully those (cricket) opportunities come around again.”
Just like every other fast bowler, Kane Richardson has been prone to numerous injuries in her career. He was out of action for more than 5 months until he got back into the limited-overs side very recently. As a bowler, Kane feels he has done a good job for his side whenever he has donned the yellow jersey.
“Coming off five months of doing nothing you don’t really know until we start, but if I look back in the last 12 months, I feel like I’ve done the job in the games we’ve played,” he said.
Since Kane Richardson backed out due to personal reasons, the RCB management named Aussie Leg Spinner Adam Zampa as his replacement. They picked a spinner over a fast bowler as a replacement since they feel a spinner will be more helpful in the dry conducive spin-friendly pitches in the UAE.