NEW DELHI: Sanjay Bangar, the Punjab Kings coach, has explained the challenges they had to face following unexpected departure of England key players for international duty during an important stage of IPL 2024.
In a press conference after their final league match, Bangar disclosed that initially the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) promised to make their players available throughout IPL season but this was disrupted by changes in the tournament’s dates.
“Actually all players were supposed to be available according to ECB. It’s just that you know it was slightly extended; yeah, I would say for many reasons. We were in the same boat but we did lose out on those English guys,” Bangar said at Sunday’s game. These include Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Will Jacks, Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran whose departure has had significant implications on several teams as these players left for T20I series against Pakistan starting May 22. For Punjab Kings it means they lost their captain Sam Curran among others right before crucial matches.
Jitesh Sharma took over as captain for the first time in place of Curran who went away.
Punjab Kings made a frustrating exit from the tournament following a loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad having set up a huge total of 214 runs electing bat first. Therefore, though he admitted that there was no doubt that his team missed some key international players ,Bangar defended that alone did not cause their poor campaign .
“Even with Livingstone leaving us because he had a niggle around his knee or ECB pulling him out. Even KG (Kagiso Rabada) had an infection and he had to go back (to South Africa). So when we came into those last couple of games depleted of International experience and caliber very badly hurt us. And it is not only because our season wasn’t up to par.” He also provided a number of international examples to explain why this has become such a huge blow.
Several teams’ performance at the decisive stage of the tournament has been affected by the absence of these international stars. Like others, Punjab Kings have had to overcome these difficulties while trying to keep in form.
