England's T20 World Cup hero Alex Hales is all set to skip the Indian Premier League next year due to international commitments. Hales had scored an unbeaten half-century, alongside captain Jos Buttler. Earlier, Pat Cummins also announced his decision of pulling out of next year's edition, owing to a packed international schedule. He became the second overseas star to withdraw from the 16th season of the league after England Sam Billings had announced his decision on Monday, citing his call to focus on longer format of the game.
"I’ve made the difficult decision to miss next years IPL. The international schedule is packed with Tests and ODI’s for the next 12 months, so will take some rest ahead of an Ashes series and World Cup. Thanks so much to @KKRiders for their understanding. Such a terrific team of players and staff and I hope I can get back there ASAP," he tweeted. Australia's Ashes tour of England starts in June, 2023 before India host the 50-over World Cup in October/December.
KKR Players released:
Pat Cummins, Sam Billings, Aman Khan, Shivam Mavi, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Aaron Finch, Alex Hales, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Sharma, Baba Indrajith, Pratham Singh, Ramesh Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Sheldon Jackson
Current squad:
Shreyas Iyer (capt), Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh
Transfer: Shardul Thakur, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Lockie Ferguson
Purse remaining: INR 7.05 crore
Overseas slots remaining: 3
