Liam Livingstone withdraws from IPL 2020 to focus on first-class cricket

Cricketers wait for the Indian Premier League (IPL) in order to be part of the biggest cricket league in the world. But, Liam Livingstone, who was part of Rajasthan Royals in the previous season has given priority to County cricket and has revealed that he would not be taking part in the upcoming season of the league.

The 26-year-old cricketer made his debut for England back in 2017 but hasn’t managed to get his spot fixed in the team. He is a brilliant hitter of the ball as he hogged the spotlight back in 2015 when he smashed 350 off 138 balls for his club side Nantwich CC in a 50-over game.

Liam Livingstone prefers County cricket over IPL

Livingstone, who was bought by RR in the 2019 auction, said that it was a great time to spend alongside such great players and learned a lot from every single individual in the team. However, now he wants to focus on red-ball cricket, so he opted to stay in England in the next summer.

“It was a fantastic experience to play for the Rajasthan Royals last year. I loved every second, learned a lot, the boys were great and I was delighted to play my part. However, I’m going to have an increased focus on red-ball cricket next summer, so the decision was made to stay in England for this,” The England cricketer said as quoted by Cricbuzz.

He also recited that he wants to renew his career across all the formats. The 26-year-old is aiming to make debut for England in Test cricket and according to Livingstone, he can achieve that by impressing the board with his performances in Division One.

“I loved the experience of playing in the IPL, but I have decided to put a renewed focus on first-class cricket next summer. I am committed to improving my game in all formats and I still have hopes of playing Test cricket; the best way to achieve that is by impressing in Division One,” he added.

In the previous season of IPL, he played four games for Rajasthan Royals and had played at a strike rate of 147.91.

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