IPL franchisees always look out for all-rounders and England’s Chris Woakes could have been one of those bowling all-rounders who does not need any introduction. The bowler had a decent performance in the T20 World Cup and only grabbed 5 wickets out of which one was against India in the semifinal.
Even after being a terrific all-rounder, Chris Woakes’ name was seen missing from the player’s list who had submitted their names for the IPL Auction. The player has recently talked to ESPNcricinfo where he gave the reason for not being part of IPL 2023.
Chris Woakes is not fit and he is not part of England’s test team which is currently touring Pakistan for the test series under the captaincy of Ben Stokes. He said that it was not an easy decision to skip IPL but he has not done it.
While talking to ESPNCricinfo, Woakes said, “It wasn’t an easy decision, by any means. There’s still a part of me that wishes I could go because the IPL is a great tournament and financially it could be very rewarding – but I didn’t want to make the decision solely on finance. It’s a tricky scenario: having just won a World Cup, potentially stock could be high. There are obviously some other players who are likely to go big but I could have been next on the list behind them.”
“I had conversations with a lot of people and some with franchises as well, who sounded keen, which made it harder to pull out. But having not played any cricket in the English summer last year, it’s a good opportunity for me to set myself up for, hopefully, a really strong summer with England.
“It’s an Ashes year and I haven’t played much red-ball cricket. I need to suggest to people and remind people that I can play red-ball cricket and get through it – both from a fitness point of view, but also to show what I can do to try and have a go at being part of the Ashes”, he further added.
Talking about the benefits of playing in the IPL, Woakes explained, “The IPL is hard to turn down because the best players go there, it’s financially rewarding and it’s been brilliant for my career. But the trade-off is that opportunity to play for Warwickshire, which I’ve always loved doing. It’s tricky as an international player, particularly with the current schedule, and more so as a bowler: you don’t get the opportunity to come back and play much for your county.”
