Bought by IPL franchises for a big amount, likes of Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Sam Curran and others could miss out on playing the first few matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. As per a report in IANS, the next season of the T20 league is likely to start from March 28, which will see few players miss initial matches as Australia, New Zealand, England and Sri Lanka play international fixtures in March.
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The three T20Is between Australia and New Zealand are scheduled to be played on March 24, 27 and 29 while the Test series between England and Sri Lanka ends on March 31. Hence, the players from these four countries will surely miss a couple of games even if IPL starts on April 1.
Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab will be largely affected by an early start to IPL as both the franchises spent big bucks on buying Cummins and Maxwell, respectively. Making him the costliest overseas buy in the history, KKR spent Rs 15.5 crore on Cummins. On the other hand, KXIP bought Maxwell for Rs 10.75 Crore.
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Apart from them, Sunrisers Hyderabad will also miss the services of their two senior payers – captain Kane Williamson and David Warner. Rajasthan Royals will be without their captain Steven Smith for a couple of matches.
The IPL franchise might make an official request to BCCI to push the IPL to the first week of April as in no case they would want to miss out on the services of their key players. Last year as well, few players joined IPL after the tournament had started.
Due to World 2019, the majority of them also left the league early and franchises were hugely impacted with it. Rajasthan Royals were without the services of their star players – Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes.
BCC is expected to come out with the fixtures of IPL 2020 next month.