T20 World Cup 2024: Pulling out of the IPL was the best thing for me ahead of World Cup – Adam Zampa

Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa reckons pulling out of the IPL 2024 was the best decision for him ahead of the T20 World Cup. Zampa was set to play for Rajasthan Royals in the lucrative tournament but he decided to opt out.

The leg-spinner was right on the money from the get-go against arch-rivals England at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on Saturday as he got rid of Phil Salt, who was looking dangerous after scoring 37 off 23 balls.

England had got off to a perfect start as Salt and Jos Buttler added 73 runs off 43 balls but Zampa dismissed the former to get his team back in the contest. Buttler was also motoring along as he was looking threatening after scoring 42 but the England captain was dismissed by Zampa when he was trying to play a reverse-sweep but holed out to backward point.

Zampa returned with impressive figures of 2-28 in his quota of four overs and played an instrumental role in restricting England to 165-6 in the run-chase of 202. Thus, Zampa was awarded Player of the Match for his impressive bowling performance.

“Yeah, obviously made that decision a little while ago to pull out of the IPL and I thought it was the best thing for me moving forward into this World Cup. I was tired, I had some niggles and I’m a family man as well, so trying to put them first over work sometimes is pretty important,” said Zampa in the post-match press conference.

The 32-year-old said he had to work hard to get his body ready for the T20I showpiece as he was out of match practice.

“So, yeah, I actually am a bit of a slow starter and I put in a little bit of extra work. My body feels great and just did that bit of extra work. Maybe a bit more bowling than I usually would before a tournament like this. And then the practice games and everything just feels nice at the moment. And yeah, I think it’s, I am a little bit of a slow starter, but this feels like a rare occasion where I’ve started how I want to,” he added.

Australia will next take on Namibia at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua on Tuesday.