Hales and others – England’s Indian Premier League rejects

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Cricket365
March 26, 2019

Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Denly, Harry Gurney and Liam Livingstone were the England players sold to Indian Premier League franchises prior to the start of the 2019 tournament. Denly – amid a career resurgence – will probably offer the best value and evidence Betway’s pound-for-pound analysis of good return investment at the IPL.

Bairstow and company have joined Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and fellow Englishman in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament, which is currently on the go in Mumbai, Rajasthan, Punjab and other Indian cities.

Some England players, however, did not land contracts when the auctioneer rattled off prices vast and varied not so long ago.

Bad Brown

Uncapped at international level, but a key player for Worcestershire, Pat Brown was listed and could have been a goodie for IPL betting. He didn’t get any interest, though, and will have to just concentrate on his County Championship, T20 Blast and One-Day Cup efforts.

No-go Hales

Alex Hales has represented the Duronto Rajshahi in the Bangladesh Premier League Islamabad United in the Pakistan Super League and Melbourne Renegades in Australia’s Big Bash League. He also relished stints with the Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League, but failed to secure a deal this time around.

Hales, meanwhile, has taken his cue to predictably back England in the World Cup. His home country, naturally, is among his tournament favourites.

“England are the favourites and that is based on what we have achieved in the last four years, which has been fantastic,” he told Sky Sports.

“To not have lost a series in the last 10 ODI series shows that we are the in-form team. Hopefully if we play good cricket at the World Cup we will get through to the knockout stages and then it’s all about how we perform under pressure in those games.

“India are always a seriously strong team when it comes to World Cup tournaments. But with Pakistan you never quite know what Pakistan you are going to get. If they turn up, on their day they are an unbelievable team as we saw in the Champions Trophy, so nobody can rule them out.

“We also have Australia who by winning the recent series in India showed that they shouldn’t be written off, especially if they have all their pacemen available and with David Warner and Steve Smith back in their ranks.”

Jumpy Jordan

While fellow Caribbean-born England cricketer Jofra Archer struts his stuff for the Rajasthan Royals, Chris Jordan has been left out in the IPL cold this season. Jordan previously played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Brown’s mates

Like Brown, Lewis Gregory and Laurie Evans are uncapped at international level. Neither piqued any sort of significant interest at the player auction. Evans did grab a stint with the Multan Sultans in the Bangladesh Premier League earlier this year, though – and before that the Rajshahi Kings in the BPL.

Where is Woakes?

From the Knight Riders to the Royal Challengers, Woakes has been there and done that, but not this time. Neither of his old franchises, nor a new one, wanted to take him for 2019 – and England still aren’t really sure if they want him in their World Cup squad or not.