Jos Buttler left the Indian Premier League due to his national duties. The English skipper said no international Cricket should clash with IPL. He also added that playing for England is his first priority.

Jos Buttler
Buttler has defended ECB's decision to pull out of IPL due to the Pakistan series. Buttler is one of eight members of England's provisional T20 World Cup squad who left the IPL before the end of the group stage last week.

"It's my personal opinion that there shouldn't be any international cricket that clashes with the IPL. I think that these games have been in the calendar for a long time. Of course, leading into a World Cup, your No. 1 priority is playing for England and performing for England. I feel like this is the best preparation."

Jos Buttler was a key member for Rajasthan Royals and his departure made a huge hole for the franchise ahead of their eliminator against the Royal Challengers Bangaluru on Wednesday. Tom Kohler-Cadmore was picked for their final two group games in Buttler's absence, but made 18 off 23 balls in his only innings till now.

While Sam Curran, who captained Punjab Kings said it was harsh for some franchise on not getting players for the full-season.

Curran said: "It was a decision that was made, that it was probably the right thing for us all to come back. It was only fair for all franchise to lose a player each or so… it would have been quite harsh if some franchises got to keep a couple of players and then some didn't."

"I think Jos, Motty [Matthew Mott] and Keysy wanted us all back together for this series. It makes great sense, because obviously we want to be playing as a team and get used to our roles. It's quite hard when you go tournament to tournament, and then straight into a big tournament like [the World Cup] where you haven't really played together."