Adam Zampa, Australian leg-spinner has opened up on the sudden exit from the India leg of IPL 2021 earlier this year. Adam Zampa was amongst the few players to withdraw from the tournament early due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Adam Zampa was part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team. He flew with teammate Kane Richardson on the 25th of April, owing to what the franchise described as personal reasons. The duo was fortunate to reach Australia by catching a charter plane as the Australian government had suspended flights from India until the 15th of May.
Adam Zampa feels they were lucky to get a flight, given how the circumstances were at that time. The South Australian spinner remarked that he and pacer Kane Richardson decided it was best to return home after a growing rise in Covid-19 cases in India and bio bubble breaches following which IPL 2021 was postponed and the remaining half was played in UAE.
Adam Zampa said: “Getting a flight just in time, we were pretty lucky. It was a bit of a s***storm. I remember people saying to us they didn’t believe that Australia would lock out Australian citizens from their country then the next day, that happening. It was a bit bizarre. Kane and I made the decision together, thinking it was the best idea for us to get home.”
Adam Zampa has picked 21 scalps in 14 IPL games averaging 17.61 including a 6 wicket haul in his debut season in 2016. He played in IPL 2016, 2017, and 2020. His career-best figures of 6/19 for Rising Pune Supergiants against Sunrisers Hyderabad is the 3rd best individual figure ever in IPL history.
The fourteenth edition of the league was Kane Richardson’s second stint with the RCB. He played 1 IPL game in 2021 picking a solitary scalp before withdrawing. Kane Richardson played only one game in IPL 2021, while Adam Zampa didn’t get a chance. The Australian pacer Kane Richardson has played 5 IPL games for RCB picking 8 scalps.
The pair weren’t part of the UAE leg of the tournament as the Sri Lankan duo of spinner all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga and pacer Dushmantha Chameera replaced them. But the Sri Lankan duo also didn’t feature in a single match before RCB bowed out from Eliminator after losing to KKR.
Adam Zampa Would Love To See Australia Win The 2021 T20I World Cup
Meanwhile, Adam Zampa reflected on Australia’s disastrous tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh and firmly set his sights on winning the World Cup T20I competition for the first time. West Indies defeated Australia 4-1 in 5 T20Is in July but more embarrassment was in store when Bangladesh defeated them by the same margin of 4-1 in August. In the 5th and final T20I, Australia succumbed to a paltry 62 which was its lowest T20I score.
He added: “We had a rough time as a team and I think we all actually needed a little bit of a physical and mental break. I went and spent every minute I possibly could just around home. I’d love nothing more than to win the World Cup. Anything less will be a disappointment.”
The leg-spinner Adam Zampa remains Australia’s premier spin-bowler for the World Cup and will share the duties with Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson. The men in yellow, eyeing their maiden T20 title, will open their campaign against South Africa on the 23rd of October in Abu Dhabi.