Former England captain Michael Vaughan has urged English batsman Tom Banton to skip the upcoming season of India Premier League (IPL). He has suggested that Banton should concentrate more on red-ball cricket in order to secure his place in England’s Test team.
Vaughan even asked England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to withdraw Banton from the next edition of IPL so that the 21-year-old could play in the County Championship and then progress to the national Test side.
“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,” Vaughan wrote in a column for Telegraph Sport.
“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. He needs to play four-day cricket and score some early hundreds,” added Vaughan.
However, England’s fast bowler Harry Gurney doesn’t seem to agree with Vaughan. He passed a sarcastic comment that should Banton face medium-pacers in County or play against world-class bowlers in front of a massive crowd in IPL.
“Option A: Rub shoulders and train with Morgan, Narine, Russell, and Cummins on a daily basis. And potentially play in front of 70,000. Option B: Nick off to a medium pacer on a green one in 8 degrees in front of a few hundred pensioners,” tweeted Gurney.
Option A:
Rub shoulders and train with Morgan, Narine, Russell and Cummins on a daily basis. And potentially play in front of 70,000.
Option B:
Nick off to a medium pacer on a green one in 8 degrees in front of a few hundred pensioners.
— Harry Gurney (@gurneyhf) January 23, 2020
Banton was snapped up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for his base price of INR 1 crore in the IPL 2020 auction. The right-handed batsman has played 27 T20s so far and scored 870 runs with one hundred and seven half-centuries.
