Zampa had been retained by Rajasthan Royals ahead of December’s auction in Dubai on a contract worth INR 1.5 crore (A$273,000 approx.), but his manager confirmed to ESPNcricinfo on Thursday that he will play no part in IPL 2024.
He has a young family at home and has had a busy recent schedule, playing in the BBL as well as Australia’s white-ball series against India, West Indies and New Zealand since the end of last year’s ODI World Cup in India.
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Royals have two of India’s best spinners in their squad in R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal but Zampa still made six appearances in the 2023 season. He took eight wickets at 23.50 with an economy rate of 8.54, including figures of 3 for 22 in a home victory over Chennai Super Kings.
Zampa has previously represented Royal Challengers Bengaluru (then Royal Challengere Bangalore) and the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant at the IPL, taking 29 wickets in his 20 appearances in the tournament, spread across four different seasons.
“There’s always areas you’d like to keep pushing [the BCCI] on,” Badale told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. “Clearly, the medical side of it is really important, given how much these players are being asked to play across formats.
“We’re without Prasidh Krishna again this season and that’s tough as a franchise, when you’ve bet 7-8% of your entire player spend on a particular player and then that player is unavailable for the whole tournament, that hurts you. The medical side is an area where we’re trying to work much harder.”
Royals are yet to announce a replacement player for either Prasidh or Zampa.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
Source: ESPN Crickinfo