Tristan Stubbs in action during IPL 2025© BCCI
The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises were handed a massive boost as South Africa announced that they will be cutting back preparation time ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia. While SA authorities first said that all players need to return home by May 26, they changed their statement and said that training for the game will now take place from June 3. “Correction – the squad will resume training for the game on June 3rd. The matter is being discussed higher up than me. At ground level, we are focusing on preps for the WTC final,” Cricket South Africa (CSA) Director Of Cricket Enoch Nkwe said according to Sydney Morning Herald.
The decision means that Kagiso Rabada, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Marco Jansen and Tristan Stubbs, among others, will be able to take part in the IPL 2025. The tournament will resume on May 17 after it was suspended for a week due to rising border tensions between India and Pakistan.
South Africa were scheduled to play a warm-up match against Zimbabwe on June 3 as preparation for the WTC Final but this decision can also lead to cancellation or revising of the fixture.
As per the initial agreement, the BCCI was supposed to release all overseas players on May 26. But, as the per revised schedule, even the league stage of the campaign would not finish before May 27, while the final is on June 3.
“One thing we’ve made clear, and we are finalising it with the IPL and the BCCI, is that we are sticking to our original plan when it comes to WTC preparations with May 26 being the latest for the Test guys to come back,” CSA’s director of cricket Enoch Nkwe said earlier.
Eight South African players – Kagiso Rabada (Gujarat Titans), Lungi Ngidi (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Tristan Stubbs (Delhi Capitals), Aiden Markram (Lucknow Super Giants), Ryan Rickelton (Mumbai Indians), Corbin Bosch (MI), Marco Jansen (Punjab Kings) and Wiaan Mulder (Sunrisers Hyderabad) – have been named in the squad for the WTC Final.
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