“I won’t be taking part in the next IPL”: KKR’s Sam Billings withdraws from IPL 2023

England wicket-keeper batter Sam Billings has ruled himself out of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League. Billings, 31, took to social media platform Twitter to post a series of tweets announcing his withdrawal from the biggest T20 league in the world.

Billings was part of Kolkata Knight Riders in the 15th season of the IPL played earlier this year. In eight matches for KKR in the last season, Billings had scored 169 runs at an average and strike rate of 24.14 and 122.46 respectively.

Billings, who was bought by Knight Riders for his base price of INR 2 crore during IPL 2022 auction, has increased their purse by the same amount ahead of the trade window deadline.

It was only yesterday that Kolkata had announced the trade of Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz and New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson from defending champions Gujarat Titans.

Sam Billings withdraws from IPL 2023

Billings, who has played all of his three Test matches in 2022, wants to focus on the red-ball format ahead of the start of English summer. Captain of Kent in County Championship Division One, Billings will resume his county duties in preparation for an international summer season which will comprise of six Test matches including five Ashes Tests.

With England not winning an Ashes series since 2015, it is not surprising by any means that one of their potential batters has opted to concentrate on first-class cricket even at the cost of an IPL season. While Billings is behind Ben Foakes in the pecking order for English Test wicket-keeper batters, he could still fit in into the squad as a specialist batter, if need be.

Before KKR, Billings had plied his trade for Delhi Capitals (2016-2017) and Chennai Super Kings (2018-2019) in the IPL. All in all, Billings has scored 503 runs in 27 IPL innings at an average and strike rate of 19.35 and 129.64 respectively.