Legendary Sunil Gavaskar and all-rounder Irfan Pathan recently came down heavily on the ECB and England players as they left the IPL 2024 before the playoffs began. This impacted quite a few franchises as they were left without multiple first-choice options.
Punjab Kings were without Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, and Liam Livingstone, while RR will be without Jos Buttler in their Eliminator against RCB. RCB will also miss the services of Reece Topley and Will Jacks in the playoffs.
KKR, on the other hand, will miss the dashing opener-keeper Phil Salt, who has gone back to join the England team.
England and Pakistan will clash in a series of 4 T20Is starting May 22, and as a result, Gavaskar demanded a penalty on the players, Pathan asked them to either be available for a full season or not come at all.
But former England captain Michael Vaughan has defended the England players and said that country comes first and that players were not wrong in leaving early.
"If you are going back to represent your country, which England players have done, I think that's fair enough. They are playing a series against Pakistan. The England players wouldn't have gone back if it wasn't for the Pakistan series.
The series was on the calendar. With English cricket, the defense of the 50-over World Cup was a poor one by England here in India. So I think, Jos and his team, 5 games against Pakistan, they get together. The actual lead-up to the 50-over World Cup wasn't perfect either. There were a lot of swaps and changes. They have now gone back to 5 matches, get all the squad together, work on a bit of culture, everyone playing their right roles, I think it will give them a better chance," Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.
On several occasions in IPL 2024, no double-headers were planned on Saturdays. Historically, the IPL has been arranged so that Saturdays and Sundays include four games each. However, with so few Saturday doubleheaders this season, the IPL was stretched a bit.
Vaughan claimed that if the season hadn't been extended, England players would not have gone so early.
"Because the schedule is always so late, I think England would have planned for that. I think they would have thought it would have finished today (May 19). Players would have gone back. Players that were playing today's final would have stayed, those who weren't, wouldn't have disappeared and England would have played the 5 games (against Pakistan) with a full-strength squad," Vaughan said.
