IPL 2024: Blow for RR & RCB as Buttler, Jacks & Topley Return to England

IPL 2024: RR will miss Jos Buttler in their last two league games, while RCB won't have Will Jacks against CSK.

IPL 2024: Jos Buttler, Will Jacks and Reece Topley have traveled back to England.

(Photo: BCCI/Altered by The Quint)

Jos Buttler, Will Jacks and Reece Topley have travelled back to England leaving the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 midway for their respective franchises for the T20I series against Pakistan. England will be hosting Pakistan in a four-match T20I series starting on May 22 at Leeds.

After Punjab Kings all-rounder Liam Livingstone flew back to England on Monday evening to get his “knee sorted out”, England's T20 World Cup skipper Jos Buttler and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) players Reece Topley and Will Jacks also travelled back to England for the preparation for World Cup.

Buttler’s Rajasthan Royals are in the second position on the IPL points table and will play their last two league matches against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on May 15 and 19 respectively. Buttler has scored 359 runs from 11 games at an average of 39.88 and a strike-rate of 140.78 with 2 hundreds.

The Royals dropped a post on ‘X’ where Buttler was seen leaving the team, RR wrote, “We’ll miss you, Jos bhai!” Bengaluru too will miss the services of Will Jacks and Reece Topley in the virtual quarterfinal against Chennai Super Kings, scheduled on May 18.

KKR might also miss the services of Phil Salt for the playoffs who is also expected to leave in the coming days. Salt has amassed 435 runs at a strike rate of 182 in just 12 matches.

Moeen Ali of Chennai Super Kings will also be unavailable for the playoffs.