(Football news) Adam Zampa decided not to play in the IPL 2024 because he was “completely drained” after the previous season. He also chose to focus on the T20 World Cup in June because he wasn’t sure how much cricket he would have played.
Zampa had been part in the Rajasthan Royals’ previous campaign and was scheduled to join them, but he withdrew on the day of the season. Despite battling multiple ailments, he played a crucial role in Australia’s victory at the ODI World Cup last year. The T20I series against India began, and he was there for a short while until he left midway through.
His home season consisted of the BBL for Melbourne Renegades where he made eight appearances followed by the white-ball series against West Indies and New Zealand.
“There are several reasons why the IPL wasn’t for me this year. I think the most important one was the fact that it’s a World Cup year and I’m completely drained from 2023,” Zampa told the Willow Talk podcast. “I did the full IPL last year. Obviously, the World Cup was three months in India as well.
“So I had the best intentions of trying to play the IPL again this year. But once push came to shove, I felt like I just couldn’t really offer the Rajasthan Royals the best version of myself and looking forward to the World Cup, that’s what’s more important to me, that’s for sure.”
Zampa, who appeared six times for Royals last season where he took eight wickets, also wasn’t sure how many games he would get if he had gone through another long stint away from home with the franchise having Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin.
“It came down to my decision being I probably need to put my body and my mental health first,” he said. “Then you throw a lot of other things into the equation as well, like the fact that I’ve got a young family. It’s not easy to spend nine weeks in India in my situation where I’m fighting for my spot in the team as well.
“It’s not like I can say to myself, ‘well, that’s alright I’ve got 14 games to prepare for a World Cup’. I don’t know whether or not that’s actually going to be two games or four games or six games. So I kind of worked out that maybe just to rest, putting my family first, putting my body first, was better for me.
“It’s not an easy decision because you’ve always got that voice in the back of your mind going, ‘pulling out of the IPL, what are people going to say? What happens the next time you want to go to the IPL? Do people kind of paint you with that brush?’. But I wasn’t too fussed about it once I made that decision, I knew it was the right one.”
Zampa will be a key figure in Australia’s quest to unite all three men’s world titles at the T20 World Cup having taken the Test Championship and ODI crowns during 2023. Earlier this year, Mitchell Marsh, who is set to captain the side at the tournament, stressed how pivotal he was.
“Zamps is by far our most important bowler and probably our most important player in this team,” Marsh said after the West Indies series.
Since Zampa and Glenn Maxwell were Australia’s spin duo during the ODI World Cup, there’s a fair chance Ashton Agar, who is also a spin option, will be added to the squad for the Caribbean.
May 1 is the deadline for naming the World Cup team; however, on May 25, changes can be made at any time.
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