After Sunil Gavaskar’s scathing attack on England players for leaving IPL 2024 early, Irfan Pathan also slammed them in a tweet on his official X account. Irfan Pathan tweeted after completing the RR vs PBKS game, which didn’t have Jos Buttler in the Royals lineup, as he left to join the national side.
Irfan Pathan’s statement came after the English players decided to leave IPL for their international tour ahead of the much important playoffs in the upcoming weeks.
England Players to leave for their country for series versus Pakistan.
England will be playing Pakistan in a T20I series in a bid to prepare for the T20 World Cup and he will be joined by Sam Curran and Jonny Bairstow on May 16. Curran said that he and Bairstow will be heading back home on Thursday. KKR also lost Phil Salt ahead of the IPL Playoffs, making Gavaskar call for action against the players leaving the competition early.
England players have left for the national duty before the league stage in the 2024 edition of the IPL came to an end. All-rounder Liam Livingstone left after his side Punjab Kings’ last game against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). The RCB duo of Will Jacks and Reece Topley left after their side’s game against the Delhi Capitals.
Jos Buttler, the England captain also left after the Rajasthan Royals’ game against the Chennai Super Kings so did Moeen Ali. Phil Salt departed after KKR’s washed out clash against Gujarat Titans and the remaining two, Sam Curran and Jonny Bairstow will be departing on Thursday, May 16 ahead of England’s series against Pakistan.
While the teams not in the fray for the playoffs might not be affected, the likes of KKR, the Rajasthan Royals, RCB and CSK will be affected the most. The likes of Salt, Buttler and Moeen Ali have been cornerstones of their respective franchises and not having them in crunch time could prove to be detrimental.
The Royals got a taste of it in their penultimate game against the Punjab Kings in Guwahati on Wednesday, May 15 as without Buttler, who has been their enforcer at the top, they struggled to get to 144 and the visitors eventually won the game. The Royals have now lost four in a row and are in danger of losing out on a top-two spot.
Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan wasn’t happy with the same as he reacted to the English players’ departure
Irfan Pathan not happy with foreign players leaving IPL early
Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan has called out the overseas players for skipping the final leg of IPL 2024 to fulfil their international commitments. The 39-year-old took to his official account on X and called for players to either be available for a full season or not play in the tournament at all.
England’s star players like Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Will Jacks, Phil Salt, and Reece Topley have already left from the ongoing edition, with the four-game T20I series against Pakistan beginning on May 22 in Leeds. It has emerged that Sam Curran and Jonny Bairstow will also leave for England duty soon.
Irked by this, Pathan wrote the below on X:
“Either be available for full season or don’t come!”
News also came from the Punjab Kings’ camp on Wednesday that Kagiso Rabada has returned to South Africa to recover from a lower limb infection ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024. Nevertheless, his replacement Nathan Ellis proved handy during the game against the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on Wednesday.
Irfan Pathan in his tweet on X said that the players should either stay for the full season or not come at all. “Either be available for full season or don’t come!” said Pathan. How will the franchises miss England players? KKR finished at the top of the points table mainly thanks to the performances from Salt and his partnership with Narine at the top. Salt scored 435 runs in 12 matches for KKR this season. Buttler’s absence was felt by RR in their loss to PBKS as their batting failed on the Guwahati pitch.
Curran, who scored 63 and took 2 wickets, won’t be there when PBKS travel to Hyderabad to face SRH on May 19. It would be now be interesting to see how the franchises cope up with this exclusions in the upcoming playoffs making IPL an interesting watch.