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Trevor Bayliss has said he will not risk the fitness of England’s eight-strong IPL contingent come the conclusion of the mega-bucks tournament.
The IPL finishes just as the first few matches of the County Championship season have been played and the Royal London One-Day Cup commences.
And with a Tri-Nations series against Australia and New Zealand to come and series against the Blackcaps to follow next month, England head coach Bayliss is wary of overburdening his stars who wrapped up a 4-1 series win in a scintillating match in Perth on Sunday.
“We have an important series on the way and if they have to come back early then they will,” he said.
“If they have niggles they will not go. If someone gets a bit of a niggle while they are there we will pull them back.”
England are in action week-to-week all the way up to 2 April with the IPL starting five days later.
Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Jos Buttler, Jason Roy have all been signed by franchises, and once against Bayliss was left to fend questions surrounding Stokes who will be in court on charges of affray on 13 February.
“If we look at Stokes he was on fire last year. I’m not saying that will happen to everybody, but the way he batted when he came back it was a step up in class from where he was before,” Bayliss said.
“It is a learning curve for everyone. But just the experience they get playing in some of these tournaments against some of the best players in the world, with different coaches in different environments with big crowds is huge. I think in the past the English players have missed out on that.”
England cricketers heading for the IPL in April
Ben Stokes (£1.4million)
Chris Woakes (£821,500)
Jos Buttler (£490,000)
Moeen Ali (£188,700)
Mark Wood (£167,000)
Jason Roy (£167,000)
Sam Billings (£110,100)
Chris Jordan (£110,100)
