England‘s top players are expected to miss the latter stage of the cash-rich IPL as per a due to the test series against the Kiwis. According to a Cricbuzz report, the opening Test against New Zealand begins on June 2 at Lord's and although the dates for the IPL have yet to be officially confirmed, it is likely that the tournament will run from March 27 until late May, just a few days before the first Test begins. If England players remained at the IPL for the duration of the tournament, it would call into question their availability for that Lord's match and would almost certainly mean they had no red-ball preparation prior to taking on the world Test champions.
The report further adds that several franchises have been given an indication that they should plan to lose England players likely to be involved against the Blackcaps before the conclusion of the IPL.It remains to be seen how many players might be impacted - depending on who gets picked up at next month's auction - and how early they will be asked to leave. If England's management wanted players to play at least one Championship match before the New Zealand series, for example, they would need to be home in time for the round of matches beginning on May 19. The Championship round before that begins on May 12. Twenty-two English players have registered for the mega IPL auction, including several who have been in England's recent Test plans. Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood, Dawid Malan, Ollie Pope, Craig Overton, Sam Billings and Dan Lawrence were all part of the Ashes squad and are currently on the auction list. Jos Buttler, who was also in Australia, has already been retained by Rajasthan Royals although Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes have already ruled themselves out. During the disastrous Ashes tour, Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said English cricket needed to go through a red-ball "re-set" in order to try and improve the fortunes of the faltering Test team. Ensuring England's players are better prepared for Test series is one part of that re-set and to that end, pulling players out of the IPL early so they get some red-ball action prior to the New Zealand series would appear to be a sensible idea.
