England will make some of the training sessions optional for the IPL trio

The England trio who returned to England before the playoffs – Mumbai Indians’ Jos Buttler, Kolkata Knight Riders’ Chris Woakes and Rising Pune Supergiant’s Ben Stokes, will be given some time to rest during their team’s training camp in Spain. This is because they already had a very busy winter during which they spent five out of seven months away from home, which also includes the IPL.

England on Tuesday will travel to the Desert Springs in Almería to work on their fitness, before the three-match series against South Africa beginning next week, which will also serve as up a warm-up for the Champions Trophy that starts on 1 June.

Training sessions optional 

As per reports in The Guardian, the England management have made certain training sessions optional for the IPL trio.

Having travelled to Bangladesh, India and the West Indies, and with the IPL factored in, Buttler and Stokes have spent close to 167 days out of 226 traveling, while Woakes, who was not part of England’s trip to India in January, enjoyed only nine days off more than the other two.

Stokes was widely successful in the IPL

Stokes repaid much of the investment that was made in him this IPL, scoring his maiden century and also leaving India as a much-improved death bowler. Woakes was also impressive as he took 17 wickets for KKR. But for Buttler, IPL 10 was below average as he scored only one half‑century in and spent the last two weeks on the bench.

It was widely assumed that Ben Stokes’ absence in the first qualifier between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant would be badly felt. But much to the relief of the fans, Pune put up a brilliant show against the two-time champions at the Wankhede and won the game by 20 runs. Stokes would have been a happy man watching the game on the TV.