Kane Richardson on missing IPL: couldn't risk missing birth of my first child
Kane Richardson hopes he gets another chance to appear in the IPL in the future but said he could not risk missing the birth of his first child following his withdrawal from the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for this year's tournament.
The limitations around global travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the key factors in Richardson's decision, knowing that it would be difficult to jump on a plane from the UAE to get home to Australia at short notice. He has been replaced at RCB by Australia team-mate Adam Zampa.
He will return home after the limited-overs tour of England and undertake the mandatory two-week quarantine before heading back to South Australia.
ALSO READ: Key to Australia's T20I success: Spin twins, and return of David Warner, Steven Smith
"It's always difficult to withdraw from a competition like the IPL, it's the pinnacle domestic competition in the world but when I really sat down and thought about it's definitely the right one with all that's going on in the world at the moment," he said.
"Just the challenge around getting home on time for something as unpredictable as the birth of a child, I couldn't risk missing that. It's disappointing to miss the IPL but hopefully there are opportunities ahead for that and don't think I'd ever be able to live with missing the birth of my first kid.
"We've had five months of but hopefully cricket will always be there. The main thing for me is to support my wife, as cricketers we are away for a lot of things but there comes a time when you prioritise your family over anything else and at the moment in the world a lot of people are doing that."
Over the next couple of weeks Richardson's focus is a return to international cricket for the first time in five months. He has been an integral part of Australia's T20I side, forming the pace attack alongside Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, as they have climbed to No. 1 in the world and hopes to retain that role.
"Coming off five months of doing nothing you don't really know until you start, but if look back over the last 12 months I've feel I've done the job so it's been a really nice period for the T20 team," he said. "You never feel 100% comfortable behind those guys but hopefully my name is called on Friday night."
Given the enlarged nature of the squad for this tour inside a biosecure bubble, Richardson is one of a host of pace-bowling options available including the uncapped Riley Meredith and Daniel Sams.
"Everyone brings a little bit of variety and their individual strengths, think that's what you want in a bowling attack. I feel like we have all bases covered," Richardson said.
Most of Australia's batsmen have enjoyed time in the middle over the four intersquad warm-up matches played at the Ageas Bowl and Richardson picked out Marnus Labuschagne's 50-ball century as the standout performance although he will find it tough to break into the T20 side.
"T20 probably hasn't been his format so to get the opportunity in that last game he showed a few people what he could do and probably some surprise in the field with the shots he was playing, was almost batting like a mini AB de Villiers someone said. That's a fair endorsement."