Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra believes the IPL family will not forget the withdrawal of three England cricketers one week ahead of the second phase of IPL 2021. Incidentally, Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes and Dawid Malan have pulled out of the cash-rich league one day after the fifth Test between India and England at Manchester was cancelled amid the COVID-19 scare in the Indian camp.

All three cricketers had confirmed their participation to their respective franchises. As a result, the decision came a shock to all the teams. Speaking on the same on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra termed it as a mass exodus.

“Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes – they were already not coming. But now Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Jonny Bairstow have also taken their name back. That means half a dozen English players will not be part of the IPL. It has been a mass exodus. The IPL family doesn’t forget,” Chopra said. 

Taking it a step further, Aakash Chopra stated that it is similar to betraying a franchise.

“The English players will have to keep this thing slightly in mind that when you pull out your name from an IPL season, the franchise that has bought you feels cheated, they feel you have been betrayed by them,” Aakash Chopra added. 

Sudden pullouts will hamper the team’s strategies: Aakash Chopra

The cricketer-turned-commentator further highlighted that the sudden pullouts might hamper the team’s strategies going into the second half of IPL 2021.

“Of course, these are tough times. We do understand all of that but it remains in the mind that I had gone with you and had created my strategy after a lot of thinking, you were an important cog of my wheel, but the cog has left,” he concluded.

The second phase of IPL 2021 will commence on September 19 with defending champions Mumbai Indians locking horns with three-time champions Chennai Super Kings in Dubai.