The England and Wales Cricket Board has left open a long window during April and May next season letting the big names from England Cricket team including their captain Joe Root to take part in the richest franchise based tournament of the world.
Root will become the first England captain to take part in the prestigious tournament and has expressed his desire to feature in the Indian Premier League. In an interview with BBC Sports, Root said, “‘it would be a great opportunity. Ultimately I’m an England player and that comes first.”
“If things fall into place, who knows, but for now my main focus is doing the best I can when I play for England. There’s a lot of cricket to come in the rest of this year and before next year’s IPL starts, he further mentioned.
Root will take a call on making him available for the auction of the next edition of the Indian Premier League after discussing his 2018 itinerary with the England Cricket Board. He also mentioned that he will have a chat with England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss and the director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
The 26-year-old cricketer has ruled out his previous chances of playing in this league though his teammates from the England team like Ben Stokes has taken the tournament with a buzz becoming the most valuable player last season. It would not be a surprise to cricketing fraternity if Root finally decides to play in the coveted league.
Andrew Strauss, the team director has always encouraged the English players to take part in the Indian Premier League as he wants his players to gain more experience in the shorter format keeping in mind the 2019 World Cup.
Last week, Indian Premier League announced their new television rights deal which saw an increase by five times than the previous one. Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals will join the league for the 2018 edition after serving a ban for two years for allegedly involving in spot fixing case.
