Lucknow Super Giants star pacer Mark Wood will miss the final stages of IPL 2023 due to the birth of his daughter in late May.
Wood and his wife Sarah are expecting their second child towards the end of May, and Wood will fly home at some point in the coming weeks in order to be present at the birth. At this stage, it appears unlikely that he would return to India afterwards.
While Wood will be out of IPL 2023 around the playoffs stage, the majority of England players involved in the competition are expected to stay in India for the whole season.
Apart from Mark Wood, Ben Stokes is also likely to miss the playoffs stage of IPL 2023 due to the Ireland Test beginning on June 1.
“Yes, I’ll play (the Ireland Test). “I’ll be making sure that I give myself enough time to get back and play that [Ireland] game,” he said as quoted in a report by ESPNCricinfo.
“I’ll probably get round the individuals and ask them what they want to be ready for for the Ashes, because those five games are obviously the big ones of the summer, and you’ve got to think about what lads want. But what if something was to happen in that game [Ireland] and we lose someone for the Ashes … It’s just one of those where you have to weigh up the options of what the individual person actually wants out of that week, versus do we really need to play that one. Because, obviously, I’m right in saying that series is bigger than that game against Ireland,” he added.