Ireland's star pacer Josh Little is set to miss the upcoming fixture for the defending champions Gujarat Titans after returning home for the ODI series against Bangladesh which will play a key role in his country's bid for automatic qualification for the ODI World Cup, to be hosted by India in October-November.
The pacer flew back to Ireland after his team's nine-wicket win against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Friday, May 5. Little is part of a full-strength squad for Ireland, who need to beat mighty Bangladesh at Chelmsford in May's ODI series which the Irishmen they must win 3-0 to qualify automatically for the 50-over World Cup at South Africa's expense.
"We wish Josh the best as he heads back to represent Ireland in the ODIs. He has had a good run in his first Tata Indian Premier League and we look forward to welcoming him back once he finishes the ODI series," Vikram Solanki, director of cricket at Gujarat Titans, said in a media release.
Little will, however, travel back to India to join the Gujarat Titans (GT) squad after the third ODI against Bangladesh, which will end on May 14.
He will miss the matches against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on Sunday, followed by Mumbai Indians (MI) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on May 12 and 15 respectively.
In addition to Little, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh and the Delhi Capitals (DC) will also be missing in action in the IPL during this period.
Litton Das, who was signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), was the third player to miss action during this period but Das returned home earlier in the month owing to a medical emergency in the family. He has been replaced by Johnson Charles, who is an experienced campaigner having represented West Indies in 41 T20Is and 48 ODIs.
Charles, who is a wicketkeeper-batter and was part of the West Indies T20 World Cup winning squad in 2012 and 2016, has a ton of experience when it comes to playing T20 cricket.
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