Playing in the IPL is more difficult than playing for the country: Muttiah Muralitharan

Legendary former Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan made a statement recently that IPL is more difficult than playing for the country. According to him, surety of getting chance in the playing XI is much higher while playing for the country. As only four foreign players can play in playing XI in IPL, that is why most of the time many good players have to wait in the bench in spite of having a great last game. But this is not the case in playing for your country. The player knows if he plays slightly good in one match there is a 99% chance that he will be in the playing XI in the next match too.

Murali also stated that the level of competition in the IPL is really very much high. The team keeps changing according to grounds and opponents, so in that scenario, it is very difficult to make you fit in the playing XI. Many times we have seen that good players who were bought by the team in the auction do not get a single match to show his ability, most of the cases they come into the field as substitute fielders.

Muralitharan made these statements during an interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin in his show DRS with Ash.

“Playing IPL difficult than playing for country. With country, you know you will perform. You will have the confidence that you’ll get the ball, you’ll play. But in IPL, no matter how well you’ve done, you might have to sit out for the sake of team combination,” Muralitharan said.

According to him, this is just a part of this huge T20 league. In fact, he had to sit outside for a number of matches for the sake of combination of the team. So his advice to all the players that take it as a sportsman and next time try harder to make you fit in the team.

“Some matches need all-rounders, some don’t. I too have sat out many matches. But I’ve never been unsatisfied. That is part of the game,” the former Sri Lankan cricketer added.

Muttiah Muralitharan was a part of IPL for the first eight editions. He has represented Chennai Super Kings, Kochi Tuskers Kerela and Royal Challengers Bangalore over the eight editions. While playing for CSK, it was the best edition for him, he ended up taking 52 wickets from 46 matches. He ended his career in IPL after playing for RCB in 2015.

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