The Indian Premier League(IPL) has often been targeted by the English former players for their failures. One such occasion happened when English ex-cricketer Paul Newman blamed the T20 league for the rescheduled India vs England test match.
It is not the first time English ex-cricketers have targeted the T20 league of India. When they got smashed by 0-4 in The Ashes they also blame IPL and were told because of the T20 league the players couldn’t get enough practice.
Hence a similar situation occurred when India traveled to England for a 5-match Test series but due to covid outbreak in England, the series had to be postponed after 4 matches. David Gower directly blamed the Indian players and board for putting IPL ahead of test cricket. He has also added that Joe Root hasn’t found any players with him available as all of them were in IPL. He also raised the question of what good has been brought by IPL to English test cricket. He added Test cricket is the oldest and most important form of cricket and they all need to defend it.
Paul Newman has blamed the Indian cricketers too and wrote in his column that the rescheduled test should have been finished last summer at Old Trafford. But they have no intention to play the test match. They wanted to play in the IPL and as an excuse, they had pointed fingers at the covid outbreak. He also described this situation as laughable.
Though he isn’t the only one who has ever blamed IPL. Michael Vaughan also passed the same kind of statement last summer. Whatever the English experts say India is currently leading the hosts by a 2-1 margin. If they can win the last test in Edgbaston it would be enough to shut the mouth of all the critics.
