England players unlikely to be available for re-scheduled IPL: ECB

England have a busy international schedule from June onwards and the players are unlikely to be available for the remainder of the suspended IPL if the T20 tournament is rescheduled this year says ECB Director of Cricket Ashley GilesThe IPL was suspended last week after multiple Covid19 cases inside its biobubble There are two windows for the T20 event to be resumed this year one is in the second half of September and before the T20 World Cup OctoberNovember and the other is after midNovemberBut Englands top players will be in action at both times They have tours to Bangladesh and Pakistan in September and October while they will compete with Australia at the Ashes right after the T20 World CupWere planning on involvement of England players in England matches Weve got a full FTP schedule So if those tours to Pakistan and Bangladesh are going ahead Id expect the players to be there Giles said as quoted by ESPNcricinfoThere were 11 Englishman in various franchises in the suspended IPLNone of us knows what a rearranged IPL looks like at the moment where its going to be or when But from when we start this summer against New Zealand our programme is incredibly busy Giles saidWeve got a lot of important highprofile cricket including the T20 World Cup and the Ashes And were going to have to look after our playersGiles dismissed suggestion that this signals a change in approach from the ECB as the management had earlier allowed up to a dozen players to miss the Test series against New Zealand at the start of June due to their involvement in the IPLThe New Zealand scenario was very different Those Test matches were formalised at the end of January by which time all those contracts and NOCs no objection certificates were signed for full involvement in the IPLGiles expressed hope that players would be allowed a bit more freedom from biobubbles as the England summer progresses The Test players are likely to enter their latest bubble from around May 28He is also keen to see England players appearing in the Hundred which starts on July 21 and runs until August 21 Englands Test series against India is scheduled to start in Nottingham on August 4Wed love them to be involved in the Hundred at some point and the launch of that competition It would be great to have our best players playing in it But well have to look at workloads very carefullyGiles also hinted that England will look to try some new faces against New ZealandWhat we do know and whats not going to change is the weight of cricket Given the Ashes series this winter we dont know what conditions thats going to be played in at the moment with regard to a Covid environment but we are going to need a bigger group of players still he saidWe may also choose against New Zealand to look at some new faces With the amount of other cricket we have to play we almost want to get this tapering towards the Ashes We have got to get that rightIs that against New Zealand I dont know thats something for us to continue to discuss