All-rounder Ben Stokes has confirmed ECB’s stand on the issue of England players joining the second half of the IPL 2021 citing a busy international schedule. Stokes said that England players will have a tough time managing gaps between international cricket and the IPL this year but he will return to the league next year.
"We don't know if or when the tournament will be rearranged, but as the ECB have said it could be difficult for the England boys to have a free gap. After this year though, I do look forward to playing a full part again at some point in the future," Stokes wrote in his column for 'Daily Mirror'.
"It was tough to say goodbye to the guys at the Rajasthan Royals earlier than I wanted, but the subsequent suspension of the tournament means that everyone is now back early with their families as India tries to get through such a difficult time."
Giving an update on his broken hand that ruled him out of the IPL 2021 way before it was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Stokes said that he will return to action well before the initially feared time period of three months. Instead, he said the recovery will take between seven to nine weeks before he will be back in action for England.
"I can't put a date on when I'll be back playing again, but as long as things progress as well as they have then I should hope it will be well before the three months that was first feared and more like seven, eight, or nine weeks. You can never know for sure how long these things will take because it is not just about the technical side of healing and getting the bone strong, there is the big issue of having confidence in it to play professional sport,” Stokes wrote further.
Stokes missed a large part of the IPL 2021 after he broke his hand while fielding and he is all set to miss the Test series against New Zealand. He is likely to recover in time before the home Test series against India starting in August.