While the limited-overs tour of India that gets under way in Pune on Sunday will give England’s cricketers the chance to showcase their talents before next month’s Indian Premier League auction, their availability for the tournament remains a thorny topic.
Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Jason Roy and Alex Hales are among the current squad members planning to put themselves forward for an IPL deal but, with two home one-day internationals against Ireland at the start of May, their attractiveness to potential bidders on 4 February could hinge on whether they are given permission to skip their international duties.
As things stand, players selected to face Ireland would need to return to the country by 1 May, meaning that, with the IPL starting on 3 April, they would only be able to feature in the first four weeks. If not, the next return date would be 14 May before an England training camp that, while seeing them miss the back end of the tournament, would still grant them an extra fortnight and could prove the difference between securing a contract or not.
There is talk among the current England squad, of whom Jos Buttler and Sam Billings already have deals with Mumbai and Delhi respectively, that those picked up by IPL teams will indeed be allowed to sit out the Ireland series, however the official line from Andrew Strauss, the director of cricket, is that it cannot be guaranteed that they will not be selected.
With even the outside possibility of them being withdrawn two weeks early a sticking point for potential IPL suitors, the players are seeking greater clarity. But, having received specialist limited‑overs contracts by England for the first time last year – a scheme that was devised by Strauss – they would also do well not to jostle too much.
Strauss, who was in talks with Alastair Cook on Friday over his continuation as Test captain, has a delicate line to tread in terms of perception too. While during his two years in the job he has encouraged white-ball players to seek overseas Twenty20 deals, he will be wary of how it looks to allow players to miss two 50-over matches at the start of a summer in which England will host the Champions Trophy.
And even though past encounters with the associate nation have seen England leave out first-team players – Morgan, for example, was allowed to remain in the IPL while James Taylor captained the side in Malahide two years ago – these are the first matches between the two teams on English soil, with supporters having already bought tickets for the games at Bristol on 5 May and Lord’s two days later.
Stokes, who is entering the auction for the first time and at the highest reserve price of £240,000, said: “I’m an England player and the decision will be made and I will go with it. If they want us to come back and represent England, which is what our job is to do, then we will come back and there will be no complaints either way.
“If you look at the guys who’ve gone away and played in the franchise cricket in Australia and India, they’ve all come back and said that it massively helped their cricket. It’s not just the players they have worked with but the coaches too. They’ve all come away with really good experiences and said they’ve come back better players for doing it.”
Morgan, as captain, may yet consider it more prudent to put country first even if he is given the all-clear to miss the Ireland series, both in terms of preparation for the Champions Trophy and in light of his decision last year to go against security advice from the England and Wales Cricket Board and miss the tour of Bangladesh.
The 30-year-old goes into the series with India, which begins with three one-day internationals followed by three Twenty20s, in need of runs, not least since both Billings and Jonny Bairstow are expected to miss out on selection despite registering half-centuries in the warm-up matches.
During the two fixtures in Mumbai, the first of which saw England chase down 305 under lights before they were humbled by six wickets in the second, Morgan made three and a golden duck and has just two half-centuries in his past 28 white-ball international innings.
“Everyone goes through bad patches,” said Stokes. “He’d probably admit himself he’s not done as well as he’d like to but he’s the captain. He’s the driving point of what we want this one-day team to be about and even if he’s not scoring runs, he’s leading the team very well. Morgy is a class player in his own right so I’m sure he’ll come good.”
