England at the IPL: 'Refreshed' Buttler, rusty Livingstone, and WC tune-ups for fringe players

The 17th IPL season gets underway in Chennai on Friday and runs until the end of May, with strong English representation. Despite various high-profile absentees, there are 13 England players under contract across seven different franchises, with plenty at stake in the build-up to the T20 World Cup in June.

England's all-format players spent four months in India during the off-season across the World Cup and their Test tour, and many have opted to skip the IPL as a result in favour of some time at home. The result is that the cast of Englishmen at IPL 2024 is slightly weaker than in most recent seasons, though there are still more than a dozen players involved.

Ben Stokes and Joe Root both made themselves unavailable before the auction, while the ECB blocked Jofra Archer from entering as he continues his rehabilitation from injury. Gus Atkinson, Jason Roy (both KKR), Harry Brook (DC) and Mark Wood (LSG) have all pulled out of their deals in the past six weeks for personal reasons or to manage their workloads.

Jonny Bairstow is the only England player set for a third stint in India since October, having also featured in the World Cup and in last month's Test series. He was retained by Punjab Kings despite missing the last edition through injury and has only played a dozen T20 games since the end of IPL 2022, but has an excellent track record in the IPL across three previous seasons.

He is joined by three international team-mates at Punjab in Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes and Sam Curran, who was retained on his record INR 18.5 crore (£1.8m) salary despite struggling for form over the past 12 months. Trevor Bayliss, England's World Cup-winning 2019 coach, is in charge, adding to the sense that English viewers will follow Punjab's fortunes more closely than any other franchise.

Livingstone's T20 form has fallen off a cliff since IPL 2023, averaging 20.76 with a strike rate of 129.30 across his last 40 matches in the format. He is still highly likely to make England's World Cup squad, but could do with a strong tournament to rediscover his rhythm and confidence ahead of their title defence in the Caribbean.

Jos Buttler was the MVP at IPL 2022 but had a quieter season in 2023 as Rajasthan Royals failed to qualify for the knockout stages, with more ducks (five) than half-centuries (four). He cut a tortured figure at the 50-over World Cup in India, unable to turn England's fortunes around as they crashed out in the group stages and averaging 15.33 with the bat, but has said recently that he feels "refreshed" after a rare six-week break.

"I'm feeling good, feeling refreshed," Buttler told talkSPORT last week. "[Going to] South Africa at the start of the year was brilliant for me: I really enjoyed the tournament [the SA20]... a change of environment with some different people and to get out of the England bubble for a little bit is good sometimes, and had a bit of quiet time now before a busy period with the IPL and the World Cup."

Buttler's leadership - both with the bat and in the field - was vital to England's T20 World Cup triumph in Australia in late 2022, and their coach Matthew Mott will hope that a strong season with the Royals will give Buttler the ideal preparation for their title defence in the Caribbean.

Several members of England's likely World Cup squad will find themselves running the drinks at some stage in the tournament, with the number of overseas players allowed to feature for each team still capped at four per match. Will Jacks and Reece Topley are both likely to spend much of the season on the RCB bench, while Moeen Ali and Phil Salt are not guaranteed starters.

But even if they do not end up playing much, the chance to focus on T20 cricket for an extended period of time should prove beneficial: for England players who are not involved in the IPL, the only competitive cricket on offer to help prepare for the World Cup comes in the early rounds of the County Championship season.

England have only played five T20Is - all in the Caribbean in December - in the last six months and do not have any fixtures scheduled until a four-match series against Pakistan from May 22. While the outline of their squad looks relatively clear, a fringe player like Luke Wood, Tom Kohler-Cadmore or Tom Curran could yet make a late bid for inclusion based on IPL form.

There has been a steady increase in the number of Englishmen involved in franchises' backroom staff across the last few seasons, with Vikram Solanki notably guiding Gujarat Titans to consecutive finals - and the 2022 title - in his role as their director of cricket.

Mo Bobat left the ECB last month to become the new director of cricket at Royal Challengers Bangalore, where he will work with the former England coach Andy Flower as well as James Bell (psychologist), James Pipe (physio) and Freddie Wilde (analyst). Carl Crowe is also back at Kolkata Knight Riders as a spin-bowling coach, after leaving Lancashire.

Moeen Ali (CSK), Phil Salt (KKR), David Willey (LSG), Luke Wood (MI), Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes (all PBKS), Jos Buttler, Tom Kohler-Cadmore (both RR), Tom Curran, Will Jacks, Reece Topley (all RCB)