Australian spinner Adam Zampa recently provided insights into his decision to withdraw from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, where he was set to represent the Rajasthan Royals (RR) for the second consecutive year.
Adam Zampa’s withdrawal from the IPL 2024
Despite being retained by the Rajasthan ahead of last year’s auction for INR 1.5 crore , Zampa opted out of the cash-rich league just before the season opener, citing personal reasons. As part of RR’s trio of spinners last season alongside India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, Zampa made his mark by claiming 8 wickets in six matches for the inaugural champions in the last season
Replacement signing by the Rajasthan Royals
Following Zampa’s withdrawal, Rajasthan swiftly signed uncapped talent Tanush Kotian as his replacement, considering his impressive domestic season performance for Mumbai. Additionally, Rajasthan bolstered their spinning options by acquiring South Africa‘s Keshav Maharaj.
Also READ: IPL 2024: Navjot Singh Sidhu picks Rohit Sharma’s white-ball successor for Team India
Zampa unveils the chief cause
Reflecting on his decision to pull out of IPL 2024, Zampa, ODI World Cup 2023 winner, explained that he felt “completely drained,” after the culmination of the ODI World Cup and believed he wouldn’t deliver his best for RR.
“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. 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 said in the Willow Talk podcast.
Concerns about playing time
With star Indian spinners Chahal and Ashwin already in the squad, Zampa, who is likely to feature in Australia’s T20 World Cup 2024 squad, further expressed uncertainty regarding his playing time during the extensive IPL campaign.
“It came down to my decision being I probably need to put my body and my mental health first. 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,” the 32-year-old added.
Potential reaction after pulling out
Despite potential speculation, Zampa also expressed minimal concern about the reaction to his decision to withdraw from IPL 2024.
“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 concluded.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan have been leading the points table in the league, securing four wins out of five matches under the leadership of Sanju Samson. Their next encounter is against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur on Saturday (April 13). This match promises to be a thrilling contest, with both teams aiming to maintain their supremacy in the points table.