England white-ball captain Jos Buttler on Tuesday defended the ECB for pulling its players out of the Indian Premier League for national duty against Pakistan before adding that international cricket should not clash with the world's biggest T20 league.
Buttler's absence will be felt by Rajasthan Royals when they face Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL Eliminator on Wednesday.
The other England players who could not be part of the play-offs were Will Jacks, Reece Topley and Phil Salt.
England take on Pakistan in the first of the four T20s in Leeds on Wednesday.
"I said, 'Look, as an England captain, my main priority is to be playing for England,'" Buttler told reporters in Leeds on Tuesday.
"It's my personal opinion that there shouldn't be any international cricket that clashes with the IPL. I think that these games have been in the calendar for a long time. Of course, leading into a World Cup, your No. 1 priority is playing for England and performing for England. I feel like this is the best preparation," he added.
England players returned home even before the completion of the league stage on Sunday.
Sam Curran, who represented Punjab Kings in the IPL, said ECB's decision made a lot of sense.
"It was a decision that was made, that it was probably the right thing for us all to come back. It was only fair for all franchise to lose a player each or so… it would have been quite harsh if some franchises got to keep a couple of players and then some didn't," the all-rounder, whose IPL team did not qualify for the play-offs, was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
