Former England skipper Michael Vaughan recently made a statement that batting sensation Tom Banton should give up his Indian Premier League (IPL) contract to play in the County championship.
Banton has been picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for his base price and the team is quite excited to have him. Pacer Harry Gurney has made a comment on Vaughan’s remarks and joked that it is better for Banton to train with international players rather than playing for just 100 pensioners.
Gurney took to Twitter and shared these remarks as Banton would be playing and training besides cricketers like Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, and Sunil Narine.
“Option A: Rub shoulders and train with Morgan, Narine, Russell and Cummins on a daily basis. And potentially play in front of 70,000. Option B: Nick off to a medium pacer on a green one in 8 degrees in front of a few hundred pensioners,” Gurney tweeted.
Option A:
Rub shoulders and train with Morgan, Narine, Russell and Cummins on a daily basis. And potentially play in front of 70,000.
Option B:
Nick off to a medium pacer on a green one in 8 degrees in front of a few hundred pensioners.
— Harry Gurney (@gurneyhf) January 23, 2020
Banton has been an exciting find for England as he has been performing exceptionally in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL). He scored the second-fastest century in the BBL history and struck 5 sixes in an over.
For the uninitiated, Vaughan urged the England selectors and management to talk to Banton and make him cancel his IPL contract as there are a few places up for grabs in the Test side.
“If I were in charge I would be on the phone this week to Tom Banton telling him to give up his IPL deal and play the first few weeks of the county season for Somerset because there is a slot available at No 6 in the Test side,” Vaughan said.
He concluded by explaining that IPL is not that important right now and can wait. But he needs to play for Somerset and score some big hundreds to nab a place in the side.
“The IPL can wait. He has plenty of time to go to India. He needs to play four-day cricket and score some early hundreds,” Michael Vaughan further stated.
Banton has scored 223 runs in 7 BBL games and has a strike-rate of more than 176 – the best in the tournament right now.
