Sam Curran in action for Punjab Kings© AFP
The IPL 2024 playoffs will not have any England cricketer competing who are part of the T20 World Cup 2024 squad as they were called back by the England Cricket Board (ECB) for a training camp ahead of the competition. As a result, the likes of Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Phil Salt (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Will Jacks (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) will not be a part of the competition anymore despite the fact that all of their teams are in the race for the playoffs. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan took to social media to express his feeling regarding the development and he delivered a brutal message for the departing players. “Either be available for full season or don’t come!” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals slumped to a 5-wicket loss against Punjab Kings with Sam Curran producing a brilliant all-round performance.
RR captain Sanju Samson opened up about the loss.
“We needed a few more runs. I think we were 10-15 runs short. It was a 160 kind of a wicket. We would have easily got more than 160 (had we played better), that’s where we lost the game. Would have been nice to have one more bowling option. I am getting used to five quality bowlers. We have to sit back and accept that we are going through failures, have lost four games on the trot.”
“Got to find out what’s not working out for us as a team. Somebody needs to step up, we have so many match-winners in the team. This is the time we need to show character. We need to score more runs. We thought 160-170 would have been a good score. We are not used to playing on such wickets this season where 200-plus totals are getting scored easily. We had to play smart cricket and build those partnerships today. Hopefully the result goes in our way (in the upcoming games),” Samson said after the match.
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