Former England captain Michael Vaughan has recently written in a column for Telegraph Sport where he said that England youngster Tom Banton should skip the IPL tournament and take part in the County Championship for Somerset. However, the flamboyant opener Banton was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 1 crore at the IPL auctions in December last year.
In his column, Vaughan added: “I have seen enough of Banton to know he is a superstar in the making.” He added: “I’m not sure a stint in the IPL right now, when he might not get a lot of game time, is what he needs at this stage of his career. 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.”
But Tom Banton, who made his international debut last November, said he would take part in IPL, as it is his childhood dream to play there.
While speaking in an interview to Metro, Banton shared: “Yes, 100 per cent (I will be playing in the Indian Premier League).” The 21-year-old again added: “When I was growing up, the IPL was definitely something I thought I’d love to do and play for England in Test cricket as well.”
Banton had an exceptional season in the T20 blast last year, where he amassed 540 runs at a strike rate of 160 last summer. Moreover, he added that a good IPL season will also give him chances of making it to the T20I World Cup squad which will take place later this year in Australia.
“Definitely, I’d love to be part of the World Cup. The white-ball team seems so strong at the moment but I’d love to go. We’ve got the IPL coming up so some strong performances there are going to help,” Tom Banton concluded.
Indian Premier League as known as IPL is one of those tournaments which bridges the gap between domestic and international circuits where the players get to rub the shoulder with the foreign players. It also helps them in their exposure and it would not be a surprise if Banton too becomes one of the star players in the future after doing good in IPL.
