New Delhi [India]: England batter Jason Roy said that he needed to get back to his family after staying away from them since January for which the 33-year-old will miss the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 with the two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
In a statement to the Kolkata-based franchise, the right-handed batter said that it was a “tough decision” for him to miss the 20-over tournament. He also sent his best wishes to the KKR players for the forthcoming season.
“After much consideration, I have made the tough decision to miss this year’s IPL. Having been away since the start of January I need to get back to my family and have a refresh before a very busy year ahead. I will be supporting my friends and teammates at KKR throughout the tournament and wish them the best of luck.” Jason said.
“You’ll be missed Jason. But we understand,” KKR wrote on their official X (formerly Twitter) account while sharing the English batter’s statement.
Earlier on Sunday, KKR named Phil Salt as Jason’s replacement for the upcoming season of the IPL 2024.
With star overseas players like Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Phil Salt, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Mitchell Starc available along with a strong Indian core in Nitish Rana, skipper Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Charkavarthy, KKR will be aiming to do well in IPL 2024. Last season, they finished seventh with six wins and eight losses. 12 points were not enough to earn them a spot in playoffs.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) IPL 2024 squad: Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Shreyas Iyer, Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain.