Just a few days ago, former England captain Michael Vaughan stirred the social media by advising young England cricketer Tom Banton to skip the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL).
Vaughan in his column for the Daily Telegraph, suggested Banton should skip IPL to focus more on red-ball cricket in order to secure his place in England Test squad.
“Obviously the team will evolve over time, and if I were in charge I would be on the phone this week to Tom Banton telling him to give up his IPL deal and play the first few weeks of the county season for Somerset because there is a slot available at No 6 in the Test side,” wrote Vaughan.
“I have seen enough of Banton to know he is a superstar in the making. I’m not sure a stint in the IPL right now when he might not get a lot of game time is what he needs at this stage of his career. The IPL can wait. He has plenty of time to go to India,” added Vaughan.
Banton has now responded to Vaughan’s suggestion and denied accepting his advice of snubbing IPL. The Somerset batsman expressed that he wants to play Test cricket but is also looking forward to take part in IPL.
“Yes, 100 percent. When I was growing up, IPL was definitely something I thought I’d love to do, and play for England and definitely in Test cricket as well. But we’ll just have to wait and see,” Banton was quoted as saying by Metro News.
In the 2020 auction, the 21-year-old was acquired by Kolkata Knight Riders for his base price of INR 1 crore.
