BIG blow for Pakistan as Glenn Maxwell and other Australia players may leave tour early for IPL 2022

Glenn Maxwell has been retained by Royal Challengers Bangalore for IPL 2022. (Source: Twitter)

The 15th edition of the India Premier League (IPL) in 2022 is set to get underway in the last week of March. The T20 league though will coincide with Australia’s cricket tour of Pakistan which starts of March 3.

The IPL 2022 which will be a 10-team affair and will run till the end of May this year may see Australian star cricketers like Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins may leave the Pakistan tour early.

Australian national selector George Bailey has clarified that IPL-bound players will be allowed to go home in the middle of the series before flying to India to participate in the mega event.

“Absolutely it’s tough for the multi-format guys to work out that balance of where they do get time to physically replenish their energy reserves. Particularly for fast bowlers (around) when they get the time to make sure that they fit and strong and able to deal with the workload. But that’s part and parcel of the modern cricketers’ life”, said Bailey as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.

The former Australian ODI skipper said that while the players are handsomely rewarded for being a part of the cash-rich league, they will also get to learn a lot from the best players across the globe.

“It continues to be a tournament that offers a huge amount for players both from a learning perspective and I don’t think the monetary side of things can be discounted. For a reasonably brief period of work the payday is pretty enormous for a certain percentage of them”, he said.

“But I do think more so than that is the opportunity to play with the best players around the world and to have access to a different range of coaches. I think that’s a terrific opportunity,” Bailey added.

Chair of selectors George Bailey has no issue with Australia's multi-format stars signing up for the IPL during a busy stretch of international cricket. https://t.co/MmP6JVFa3g — cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 25, 2022

Australian cricketers are on edge barely a month before their first tour of Pakistan in 24 years amid an uptick in terror attacks in the Asian nation, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday (August 26). “We’re all toey about it,” a source close to the team told the newspaper, using an informal Australian term for being anxious or worried.

Australia are scheduled to play three Tests, three one-day internationals and one Twenty20 match in Pakistan starting March 3. Selector Bailey told reporters on Wednesday that security arrangements would be ‘very, very robust and very, very thorough’.

“I believe the boards are still working through some of the minor details around that tour, so once that gets the formal tick of approval then we`ll announce the squad post that, but we`re reasonably well down the track,” he added.

Australia has not toured Pakistan since 1998 due to security concerns, instead playing its away matches in the United Arab Emirates. Though some international touring sides have returned to Pakistan in recent years, New Zealand abruptly halted a tour there in September citing security issues and England shortly afterwards cancelled a planned tour.

(with Reuters inputs)