Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
The Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) has set August 20 as the last date for squad submissions ahead of IPL 2021 resumption. This has welcomed a bit of a trouble for the eight franchises with uncertainty looming over a couple of players.
Franchises to finalise their squad before August 20
With BCCI setting a last date for squad submission, seems like the franchises still have a lot of work to do. Although the England Cricket Board & Cricket Australia have left it to the players to participate in the second phase of IPL, the franchises are in talks on the availability of the cricketers.
“We have to submit the squad by August 20 but I can’t confirm whether all foreign players will be available. We are still in talks with some players. The good thing is that the T20 World Cup will be held in UAE and that gives us confidence that all players will be available but we are still waiting on some players’ final confirmation,” a franchise official was quoted as saying in Insidesport.
Two most-successful franchises - Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings are already in UAE ahead of the IPL resumption and have not much to worry when it comes to the squad selection. CSK CEO on Wednesday confirmed on the availability of Australian cricketer Josh Hazlewood for the UAE-leg of the tournament.
However, Rajasthan Royals seems to be a hard-hit franchise when it comes to participation of overseas players. With injury ruling out star pacer Jofra Archer for the year 2021, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler’s participation is still under the clouds. Two of the domestic players in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube have also been released by the Royals.
The tournament is set to start on Sunday, September 19 with the final scheduled for October 15. The remainder tournament will take place across three venues in UAE, namely Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah with 31 matches left.