‘Bad news for Punjab Kings as ECB clears Liam Livingstone for IPL but not Jonny Bairstow and other England players for upcoming tour’
Well, it looks like the ECB will not be granting him a NOC for playing in this season, set to start on March 31 due to his recent injury layoff. He missed the T20 World Cup and home Ashes after slipping on a pavement during a round of golf in September 2022 when provisional engagements for a Test tour of Pakistan and warm-up matches in New Zealand struck off the calendar.
Bairstow has a leg broken and an ankle dislocated in surgery in October, but the tale is that he will in a fortnight be limping his way around again. A sailor setting out to sea.
The ankle problem also disrupted Livingstone’s season in 2022 after he suffered the injury during last summer’s Hundred. However, he is yet to feature since the Rawalpindi Test against Sri Lanka in December, after sustaining injuries.
This is the second successive month Buttler graduates to the Test squad having been on pre-season training with Lancashire County Cricket club in Dubai last month. The report also claimed that the services of the expensive Sam Curran this year to the fast-bowling all-rounder will be made available to the Punjab Kings.