Australia’s chief selector Trevor Hohns said on Wednesday that he expects his players to expect their players not to play the postponed season of the Indian Premier League that will begin in mid-September to remain in the content of getting selected in the national squad for the T20 World Cup.
Apart from white-ball series against West Indies and Bangladesh, Australia are hoping to finalize a T20 tri-series against West Indies and Afghanistan ahead of the T20 World Cup in October-November. If this series happens, then its timing may also fall with the last phase of the IPL. The IPL is expected to start in the UAE from mid-September.
“Around that time of the year, I would certainly hope so (that players forego the IPL for national representation),” Hohns was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“However, it will certainly depend on their commitments and what we think they should be committing to regarding their Australian commitments at that time.”
Hohns, however, added that the matter “would have to be addressed in the future”.
“We haven’t looked at that yet and we haven’t heard from our players at this stage,” he said.
Hohns also hinted that there is no guarantee that some of the IPL returnees who have opted out of the squad for the white-ball tours of West Indies and Bangladesh would get an automatic spot in the T20 World Cup.
