Australia’s match-winning leg spinner Adam Zampa withdrew his name from IPL 2024 at the last minute which put the Rajasthan Royals in jeopardy as the decision somewhat shook the combination of the team.
The Decision
Zampa has finally opened up about his last-minute decision and said that he was completely drained after the 2023 ODI World Cup which Australia won. In the words of Zampa
“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.
The Reason
“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.”
“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,” he said.
The Thought
Zampa added that it wasn’t an essay decision to make as he was also concerned about the repercussions of the move and what people might say about it.
“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