Cricket South Africa to allow IPL-bound players to leave Pakistan ODI series midway

Cricket South Africa (CSA) has allowed its players to leave the home ODI series against Pakistan midway and take part in the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). If reports are to be believed, the Proteas cricketers will leave for the IPL on April 4 after the second ODI at the Wanderers in Johannesburg.

The ODIs commence on April 02 with the first game at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The four-match T20I series begins on April 10 with Johannesburg and Centurion being the venues.

In the meantime, the upcoming IPL season is set to get underway on April 9. The opening game will take place between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

Pakistan should not play a weak South Africa team: Rashid Latif

The decision to field a weakened South Africa unit hasn’t gone down well with a number of former cricketers. Rashid Latif, the retired wicketkeeper, stated that the two boards should have agreed upon playing with full-strength squads.

“If Pakistan had left out their five main players, would South Africa have still played with Pakistan? Then why are Pakistan playing with them? Pakistan should not play a weak team. When both boards decided on this series, they would have decided on playing their full-strength sides. You are fooling the broadcasters by playing weakened sides,” Rashid was quoted as saying on Sportskeeda.

Later, Dale Steyn, the veteran South Africa fast bowler, also asked why the stalwarts of the national team won’t be available for the T20I series. He wrote, “I missed the reason why our big dogs aren’t playing the T20s against Pak?”

The players, who are expected to travel midway from the ODI series, are Lungi Ngidi (Chennai Super Kings), Kagiso Rabada (Delhi Capitals), Quinton de Kock (South Africa), David Miller (Rajasthan Royals), and Anrich Nortje (Delhi Capitals).

A couple of months ago, South Africa toured Pakistan for a full-fledged bilateral series, which included two Tests and three T20Is. The visitors lost both the series and could only manage one win out of five matches. It remains to be seen if they can turn their fortunes around in the upcoming fixtures against Babar Azam and Co.