England cricket team’s managing director Rob Key has revealed that it was captain Jos Butter who pushed for the withdrawal of the T20 World Cup-bound players from the IPL 2024 playoffs. England and Wales Cricket Board while announcing their
squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup
on Tuesday, also said that the English players
will be missing the IPL 2024 playoffs
due to a T20I series against Pakistan at home.

The four-match T20I series against Pakistan starts on 22 May while the IPL 2024 playoffs begin on 21 May. This means players like Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Phil Salt (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Moeen Ali (Chennai Super Kings) will not be available for playoffs if their franchises qualify.

Buttlers wants the players to participate in the series against Pakistan before they face Ireland in Barbados on 4 June in the World Cup.

“I asked him (Buttler) very early on in the piece and said, ‘Look, as England captain, you’re obviously going to have this series against Pakistan. How do you see it?’ And straightaway, he said, ‘No, no, I want to come back and start getting ready for the World Cup in that series that’s just before it’,” Key was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

Other England players who could be forced to miss the playoffs are Punjab Kings’ Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks and Reece Topley from Royal Challengers Bengaluru. However, there’s less chance of PBKS and RCB reaching the final stages.

Key also shared that he had already informed IPL-bound England players that there was a possibility of them returning early.

“Look, there is a good chance that you’ll be coming back (early),” he told the players before they departed for the IPL.

“There is a chance you could stay out there. We may feel that if you get through to an IPL final that, maybe, that’s the best thing to do. It might be that if there’s only one of you then you’d let you go on and do that… we have to keep it pretty fluid.”

With the T20 World Cup looming, England want their players to spend time together before taking part in the ICC event.

“You can’t just call people back for no reasons: there are protections,” Key said.

“Without injury or England commitments, we couldn’t say to Phil Salt, for example, come back and have a rest for the next 15 days. But there is a window just before an England series when you can bring players back for England duty or injury.”