England star Harry Brook has opted to join County Championship side Yorkshire for the start of the upcoming season having withdrawn from the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Brook who was set to feature for Delhi Capitals in the ongoing season, withdrew from the tournament due to the death of his grandmother Pauline. Brook had earlier withdrawn from the five-match Test series against India with his grandmother being ill during that period. However, he will now return to competitive cricket for the County Championship.
Brook to feature for Yorkshire
“Now that Brooky isn’t going to the IPL, I suspect he’s going to be available to us for the first few games, including Leicestershire,” head coach Ottis Gibson told the club website.
“He loves playing for us, and Rooty is also going to be available for some games in that early period. Having those two playing for us would be special.”
Brook has endured a troublesome past few months after his grandmother was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. This led to Brook being unavailable for the Test series against India and had to withdraw at the last moment. However, he was still in contention to play in the IPL where he was bought by the Capitals for INR 4 crore (£380,000) during December 19 auctions.
Another reason for Brook’s unavailability for the IPL was the workload management as the defending T20 World Cup champions prepared to retain their crown. Had he played in the IPL and the India Test series, he would have been playing relentless cricket in the build-up to the T20 World Cup which starts on June 1 in the USA and West Indies.
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DC have made a poor start to the IPL 2024 season, as they lost to Punjab Kings by four wickets in their opening match while they are also without Lungi Ngidi. Ngidi is reportedly injured and won’t join the squad for the IPL 2024 which prompted the 2020 IPL runners-up to sign Jake Fraser-McGurk for the rest of the season.
DC squad for IPL 2024
David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Ricky Bhui, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Sumit Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Abishek Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Vicky Ostwal, Praveen Dubey, Prithvi Shaw, Lalit Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Jhye Richardson, Rasikh Dar Salam, Kumar Kushagra, Yash Dhull, Swastik Chikara