Flamboyant English batsman Tom Banton is contemplating skipping the next edition of the Indian Premier League as he is of the opinion that he is at such a stage that he needs to play more and more cricket rather than just warming benches. The IPL Auctions is slated to be held on 18th February and all the franchises have announced their list of released and retained players.
Banton who was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders set-up in 2020 after being bought at his base price of 1 crore was among those 6 players released by the franchise. The young batsman who is capable of decimating any bowling attack on their day had to worm the benches for the major part of the tournament last year.
He just played a couple of matches scoring 18 runs. During his interaction with Sky Sports, Banton reiterated the fact that IPL was a tournament that he loved being part of while growing up but in hindsight, he wants to play more cricket rather than warming the benches.
“Growing up as a kid the IPL was a tournament that I absolutely loved watching. But I feel like I'm at a stage now where I need to be playing cricket instead of sitting on the bench," Tom Banton told Sky sports.
Banton further added that he has warmed the benches so much that he is currently missing playing cricket. "The last year has taught me quite a bit, obviously all these tournaments are great but a lot of them I've been sat on the sidelines and not really doing a huge amount. I miss batting and playing cricket if I'm being honest," he said.
He further added that he might skip the IPL in order to play for his county and get close to the dream of representing England in the longest format.
"I feel at this point in my career it's probably best if I play a few red-ball games for Somerset and get back into that because I do miss playing red-ball cricket and my ambition is still to play Test cricket.
We'll have to wait and see. I still haven't decided yet, but I'm just going to speak to a few people and try to decide from there,” he signed off.
Powered by Froala Editor