'You can't say no to players who want to play IPL' - Jonny Bairstow throws lights on huge monetary benefits of the league

In the past few days, the England cricket team’s strategy of rotating its players has seen severe scrutiny from former cricketers and cricket experts. Despite winning the first Test, England changed their combination by resting James Anderson and Dominic Bess. Jos Butler was sent home to spend some time with his family before he can come back and feature in the limited-overs leg. 

Moeen Ali, who was Bess’s replacement, has now travelled back to England after playing just one Test so that he can be back before the ODI and T20Is. England has been making these sorts of changes in the Test team, in order to make sure they manage the workload of their players, especially so that they can go and play the IPL later on this year. 

Jonny Bairstow, who missed the first two Tests in India because he had travelled back to England after the Sri Lanka Tests for this very reason, recently shared his thoughts on this matter. Bairstow admitted that missing out on the IPL contracts is something that no cricketer wants to do.

At some point, people are going to need rest: Jonny Bairstow on workload management 

Bairstow pointed out how it is not possible for someone to say no to IPL just because they are playing Test cricket. “Look, I think it is part and parcel of the game. There are guys who have white-ball contracts and red-ball contracts and then there are those who have both. I think guys who have white-ball format will want to go to the IPL and you cannot tell them don’t go,” Bairstow said during a virtual press conference ahead of the third Test. 

Bairstow himself will be representing Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he is one of the important batsmen of the franchise. He is back in the England team from his due rest and is expected to play the last two Tests and the limited-overs matches which follow. Bairstow opened up about the struggles of quarantine which makes taking rests in the middle more sensible.

“When it comes to resting, if you are asking people to be away from home from Jan 2-March 29 and to be in bubbles, at some point, people are going to need rest, that’s where the coaching staff has decided to give players rest,” Jonny Bairstow said.