Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) opener Jason Roy revealed he withdrew from IPL 2024 to put his ‘mindset and body first’.
Notably, the hard-hitting English batter was one of the retained players by the two-time champions ahead of the auction. After Roy’s withdrawal, KKR had to sign his fellow England teammate Phil Salt.
The right-hander had joined KKR in IPL 2023 after Shreyas Iyer was ruled out due to injury and Bangladesh opener Shakib Al Hasan wasn’t available for the season. In an episode of The Athlete’s Voice Podcast, Roy stated missing IPL was a ‘huge’ decision for him.
“Missing this year’s IPL was a huge decision, I think. KKR put so much trust in me by retaining me after a decent year last year and being available for them throughout the year and all the other competitions, I felt like I owe them a huge amount,” said Roy.
“It was a very big decision, but a decision I came to just because it was my daughter’s fifth birthday as soon as our first game was, there were a few things going on, I was quite tired after the start of my year,” added the opener.
After he missed out on England’s squad for ODI World Cup last year, Roy played in SA20 for Durban Super Giants before flying to Abu Dhabi to play in ILT20. At ILT20, Roy represented Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in two matches. He then flew to Pakistan to play for Quetta Gladiators in the PSL 2024.
“I’ve come off the back of not a huge amount of cricket, so the last couple of months have really taken it out of me. So I was very honest to KKR and we’ve got a fantastic relationship, so we were able to come to an agreement and stuff like that on why I wasn’t coming. They completely understood so I’m very grateful to them for that. But I just had to put myself first, just mindset and body,” he added.
