Rajasthan Royals (RR) Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara admitted that RR will miss the services of the England trio of Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Jos Buttler in the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021), resuming on Sunday, September 19 in UAE.
While Archer is recovering from an injury, Stokes is on a break to take care of his mental well-being and Buttler pulled out of the IPL 2021 to be with his wife and newborn daughter at home.
However, the RR has named their replacements in Evin Lewis, Oshane Thomas, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Glenn Phillips for the remainder of the IPL 14 in the UAE, but Sri Lankan great said the franchise will miss the services of the England trio because of what they bring to the side in the tournament.
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Sangakkara told IANS, “Well, the make-up of the squad has been different again because we’ve had a few pull-outs from our players for various reasons – all understandable – you’re looking players for the long term, as individuals, their lives, not just for one season of IPL.”
He further added, “Jos has had a new addition to his family and we wish him the best. We really miss those guys because they’ve been brilliant because of what they bring to the franchise – not just on the field but also off it. Archer has had a huge miss in terms of cricket with his injury.
We would really like him to get better. He’s brilliant to watch when he’s playing not just for RR, but generally in world cricket. I think world cricket needs Jofra Archer back in terms of him having been such a great performer and athlete.”
On the new signings for the UAE-leg of the IPL 14, the RR director of cricket said: “We’ve also had new signings in Shamsi, Evin Lewis, Glenn Phillips, Oshane Thomas, and then Liam Livingstone is back, which is a great thing. I think we have a really good squad which gives us the option of going with various combinations. I am happy to see that players are really looking forward to it.”
Sangakkara is now eager to see how the Indian players perform in the second half of the IPL 2021 in the UAE especially in the absence of the key players.
The Sri Lanka batting legend said, “I am really excited to see what players like (Anuj) Rawat, Mahipal (Lomror) can bring to the table – have to mention JD (Jaydev Unadkat) - he went through some difficult phases in his career – but the first half (of IPL 2021) he really stepped up with some performances.”
He added, “Unadkat also contributed once with the bat – his bowling was outstanding – goes to show he’s got so much to offer – and very impressed with his kind of character and it’s for everyone else to see that you can come back from a setback and keep doing well.
I am also really excited to see the likes of KC Cariappa, Mayank Markande, Shreyas Gopal – who have all been great performers for their domestic teams. So all in all, we’ve got a great squad, I can’t complain, and I’m excited to work with them.”
On the fifth-ranked RR’s chances in the IPL 2021, Sangakkara said, “What I want to see from the players is their best efforts – competing as hard and for as long as possible to create opportunities to take games and win games – that’s the real key.”
He signed off by saying, “I think the more we play our best cricket, the more we stick to our strategies and our plans as we’ve done our analysis – and are able to execute what the side needs, that’s what I’m really looking at. If we can do that, the rest will take care of itself in terms of results and tables.”
(With IANS Inputs)
