Should Australia’s IPL stars have toured West Indies?
The last time the Australian cricket team played an international match was in March 2021, when they played a T20I series in New Zealand. Their next international game will be against West Indies on July 9 in St Lucia. Between these two events, some of the Aussies were in India, playing in the IPL, which got called off and postponed due to the rising cases of coronavirus.
David Warner, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams and Steve Smith have decided to not travel to the Caribbean Islands which has made the selectors go with some of the reserves. Now, this brings us to the big question, whether these players should have skipped this series or not. When it comes to the reason why these players decided not to travel, most of them have decided to stay back home after going through a tough time while returning from India. Bio-bubble fatigue seems to be the main reason, barring Smith, who is recovering from an elbow injury.
View this post on Instagram
Avoiding bubble-to-bubble transition
The fact that we are in the middle of the pandemic for the second year must be a good enough reason to excuse these athletes. However, the biggest question which arises from this doesn’t just revolve around the Australian players not going for an international tour, but also if this move has been made keeping in mind that there will be the resumption of the IPL in the month of September and this break will allow them to get charged.
If and when the IPL resumes, some of these players will be seen going out there playing the league. BCCI knows how crucial Australian players are to the league and have shared a good relation with Cricket Australia (CA). Having said that, there might be some who will not go and either way, it should be the choice of the players.
Talking about the players who have chosen this break, yes it is important. There was a lot of hassle which the Australians went through to make it back to their country. Staying away from their families in such a tough time is not easy to begin and then there is the whole bio bubble space, which can be a little tiring for the players.
Building up bench strength
On top of this, if we look around most of the countries, they are trying to build a strong bench for themselves in this pandemic, which is quite obvious that since March 2020, the sport Cricket has not been just a battle of bat and ball, but also a constant mental battle for each of these players. Australia included some individuals for this tour and it gives the selectors a great chance to explore and see if someone among the newcomers would be suited for the national team or not.
In the end, it all will not matter if Australia wins the series. Mental health is becoming a relevant issue in society and the need to manage workloads is also something which the teams have done. As of now, the decision seems fine, but if they make their way to UAE for the IPL and it is seen that they skipped this tour, just so that they can play, there might be some questions that are bound to be asked.
