Bairstow Woakes Malan: Why have English cricketers pulled out of IPL 2021?

Why have English cricketers pulled out: The second phase of Indian Premier League 2021 will be without three more English players.

England wicket-keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow (Sunrisers Hyderabad), all-rounder Chris Woakes (Delhi Capitals) and batsman Dawid Malan (Punjab Kings) have all decided to skip the second phase of the 14th season of the Indian Premier League.

The development came to light this afternoon when it was learnt that the English trio won’t be travelling to the UAE for the IPL alongside other English and Indian players.

While Hyderabad and Delhi haven’t announced any replacements as of now, Punjab have signed South Africa batsman Aiden Markram as Malan’s replacement for this season.

Among these three players, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Bairstow’s absence will be felt the most at Sunrisers. In 28 IPL matches for SRH across three seasons, Bairstow’s 1,038 runs had come at an average and strike rate of 41.52 and 142.19 respectively including one century and seven half-centuries.

While Malan was into his maiden IPL season, Woakes was representing Capitals for the first time after not playing the tournament in 2019 and 2020.

Why have English cricketers pulled out of IPL 2021?

It is worth mentioning that Bairstow, Woakes and Malan have made themselves unavailable for IPL 2021 to avoid bubble fatigue and manage their workloads ahead of what will be a busy winter season for them comprising of ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and Ashes 2021-22.

Woakes, who hadn’t played a T20I for almost six years until June 2021, played a couple of them against Sri Lanka at home and is now a part of England’s T20 World Cup squad. In what is doubtlessly a surprising selection call, the 32-year old player managing his workload ahead of a world event isn’t surprising by any means.

In addition to this trio, established English players namely Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer (all Rajasthan Royals) had also opted to miss the second phase of IPL 2021 due to various individual reasons.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali and Sam Curran (both Chennai Super Kings), who had been participated in the recently concluded Test series against India, will continue with their stints in the IPL.

Apart from this pair, eight more English players in Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders), Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid (Punjab Kings), Sam Billings and Tom Curran (Delhi Capitals), Jason Roy (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Liam Livingstone (Rajasthan Royals) and George Garton (Royal Challengers Bangalore) will take part in the remainder of IPL 2021.