Australia Cricket Team head coach Justin Langer has blamed the timing of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE as the reason behind the injury-wracked Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Incidentally, the four-match series has witnessed a handful of players getting injured with Team India struggling to field a playing XI for the fourth and final tie of the series.
Meanwhile, after the Sydney Test, which saw Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin battle injuries to save the match, three Indian cricketers were ruled out from the fourth and final match of the tour. Ravindra Jadeja is out with a dislocated finger. On the other hand, Vihari will miss actions with a hamstring while pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been reportedly ruled out with abdominal pain.
Delayed IPL is the reason behind the injury-wracked Test series – Justin Langer
On top of it, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, and KL Rahul have already been ruled out of the series. Talking about Australia, they also missed David Warner in the first two Test matches and he looked in discomfort during the third tie. Justin Langer believes the delayed IPL was to blame for so many injuries marring Australia’s blockbuster series’ with India.
The cash-rich league which was originally scheduled to begin in March was postponed until October due to the coronavirus pandemic which forced a complete lockdown across the globe. IPL 2020 culminated on November 10 and the players had to go through a 14-day quarantine in Australia with the one-day series starting almost immediately after they were allowed out.
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“It’s really interesting how many injuries there have been throughout this summer,” said Langer. “We suffered through it during the white-ball series and (India) through the Test series. We’ll review this, but I can’t help think that the IPL this year probably wasn’t ideal timing for anyone, certainly for such a big series like this,” Justin Langer added.
Speaking further, Justin Langer cleared that he holds no grudges for IPL and loves it just like he did the English County cricket for providing young talent with opportunities to express themselves at the highest level. He also had previously called it the best T20 league across the globe.
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“I love the IPL. I look at the IPL now like I used to look at (English) county cricket for young players, you go and play county cricket and it helps their development enormously,” said Langer.