IPL form will be key part of England selection decisions before T20 World Cup
All runs are equal; some are a lot more equal than others. So it is with the Indian Premier League and the England cricket team. For England’s selectors, this year’s IPL — which begins on Saturday in the UAE, due to Covid-19 — is not merely an overseas domestic tournament. The performances of the 10 English players will be examined to refine the England team for next year’s Twenty20 World Cup.
In the past two years, the hidden hand of the IPL has been detectable in two of England’s most significant selectorial decisions. In 2018, Jos Buttler’s resplendent IPL helped earn him a Test recall despite not having played a first-class game in eight months. Last year, Jofra Archer made his England one-day international debut after playing just 14 50-over games in his professional career. “International cricket is probably the same intensity as the IPL,” Archer declared when selected in the World Cup squad.
With four overseas players per side, concentrated into only eight teams, the IPL is comfortably the highest-standard T20 league in the world. In terms of the quality of play, CricViz calculate that the average standard of an IPL game is superior to all international T20 matches not involving at least one of Australia, England, India and the West Indies. When it comes to gauging a player’s current international capabilities, IPL performances are of an altogether different order of magnitude to displays in the T20 Blast, where the quality is diluted by having 18 teams.
Never has the IPL been as relevant for the make-up of the England T20 team as this year. With next year’s T20 World Cup in India, how players perform against the best players in the world on similar spin-friendly wickets in the UAE is an essential barometer of how they are likely to fare in a year’s time. England are currently only due to play nine T20s before the World Cup, so they will not be able to test all their possible combinations in international cricket alone; they will need the IPL to do some of the work for them.
This could all have particular relevance for Tom Banton. A poor T20 series against Australia could not dilute the glow of his effervescent hitting, which fuses raw power with 360-degree dexterity, against Pakistan. Should he get the chance to play for Kolkata Knight Riders — with the county's blessing, he will miss the Bob Willis Trophy final — Banton has the chance to address his biggest weakness, spin bowling, and show that he can thrive in Asian conditions.
Particularly useful, from England’s perspective, would be if Banton gets the chance to play in the middle order, which is not his favourite position, but the one where England’s need is greatest. Doubtless Eoin Morgan, his KKR team-mate, will be assessing Banton closely.
The IPL may also bring clarity to other issues. For all his struggles this summer, Moeen Ali may benefit from returning to the rhythm of playing regularly; should he bat with the same effectiveness as last season for Bangalore, it may even encourage England to use him as a middle-order floater deployed to attack spin.
Sam Curran is expected to get the chance to bat at three for Chennai Super Kings, knowing that a strong all-round campaign can further his own claims to a regular T20 berth.
Competition between Rajasthan’s Tom Curran and Punjab’s Chris Jordan — who might be competing for one death-bowling spot in a full-strength England T20 side — will also be instructive. And, should family circumstances allow him to play later in the season, Ben Stokes could well open for Rajasthan, which would be another fascinating juncture in his development as a cricketer; in turn, that could also encourage England to use Stokes as their T20 number three. It was Buttler’s success as an IPL opener, after all, that drove England to use him there in 2018.
All the while, those English cricketers remaining at home — including Jason Roy, who pulled out of the competition for personal reasons, which may prove to Banton’s advantage — will fear being left behind.
The confluence of private investment, the concentration of the world’s best talent and sheer number of matches to hone players’ skills — any team reaching the IPL knockout stages will play more T20 games this season than England have ever played in a calendar year — means that the cutting-edge thinking in T20 happens in the domestic realm, and nowhere more than the IPL. Recognition of these truths drove England's rapprochement with the IPL after the 2015 World Cup.
And so even to the most parochial England cricket observer, who doesn’t care for its sporting virtues, the IPL still has relevance. Besides England games themselves, nothing is now more important than the IPL in determining the shape of England’s T20 team.
