IPL 10: Sam Billings will not return to IPL this season, confirms ECB

Hard-hitting wicket-keeper batsman Sam Billings will not be returning back to India this week for the remainder of the IPL. Billings, who is a part of the Delhi Daredevils, has been an integral part of the Delhi camp since the last edition of the IPL. He had lit up the tournament in the previous edition with a quick fifty on debut. This year, he was a regular face of the starting eleven for the Delhi camp.

However, midway through the season, Sam Billings had to head back to England to be the part of the national side that hosted Ireland for a short two match ODI series. It was earlier speculated that Billings would return to India after the ODI series against Ireland gets over. He will then subsequently be a part of the remaining fixtures for the Delhi Daredevils in IPL 10.

Now, the official social media handle of the England cricket board has confirmed that Billings will not be heading back to the IPL this season. The reason for this being the fact that the Daredevils are out of the contention for the playoffs now. They have two more games to go this season. A win in both the matches will see them finish with 14 points in the points table.

As the points table stands right now, four teams already have more than 14 points to their names. Hence, in no probability can the DD match up the top four slots which would qualify for the playoffs. In their tweet, the England Cricket twitter handle wrote, “It has been agreed that @sambillings will NOT return to the #IPL this week as @DelhiDaredevils cannot qualify for the knockout stage.”

It has been agreed that @sambillings will NOT return to the #IPL this week as @DelhiDaredevils cannot qualify for the knockout stage. pic.twitter.com/y4h2jXIZdx

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 9, 2017

Sam Billings will be next seen in the ODI series against South Africa that commences on May 24 before being a part of the national side in the Champions Trophy 2017.