England Test players set to miss later stages of IPL 2022: Reports

While the BCCI has announced that the 74-match IPL 2022 will kick start around March 27 and conclude in the last week of May, reports have emerged that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) might call back the Test players ahead of the latter stages of the competition. England are slated to take on New Zealand on June 2 at Lord's, just a few days after the conclusion of the IPL.

According to the report on Cricbuzz, several franchises have been given an indication regarding the same but with the auction set to take place next month, there is hardly any clarity. If the ECB impose the rule of players taking part in at least one Championship match before the Test series, the players will have to be ready by May 19, which will significantly impact the IPL franchises. 

Currently, 22 English players have registered their names for the auction, including the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood, Dawid Malan, Ollie Pope, Craig Overton, Sam Billings, and Dan Lawrence, who were a part of the Ashes squad. Jos Buttler has been retained by Rajasthan Royals but the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes decided not to put up their names for the auction.

After the Ashes debacle in Australia earlier this month, ECB managing director for Men's cricket, Ashley Giles has called for systematic changes in English cricket and blamed England's domestic cricket set up for the country's failure to prepare players for international assignments. Following that, they have decided to prioritize the red-ball format for which Joe Root refrained himself from registering for the IPL auction.