IPL 2020: Jos Buttler will miss Rajasthan's 1st game against CSK due to his quarantine period

Wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler on Sunday confirmed that he will miss the first game for Rajasthan Royals due to his quarantine period. The Royals will open their IPL 2020 campaign against Chennai Super Kings in Sharjah on September 22.

Buttler came to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday night after completing England's 3-ODI series against Australia earlier this week. The English and Aussie players had to quarantine for 36 hours before they could join their respective IPL teams.

"I'm unfortunately going to miss the first match for Rajasthan because I'm going to be doing my quarantine period. I'm here with my family, it's great that the Royals have allowed me to have my family over, so it will be a huge help," Buttler said in a video posted by Rajasthan Royals on Instagram.

The Royals are already without star all-rounder Ben Stokes, who is with his family in Christchurch. It is still not clear as to



when and if Stokes, whose father has been diagnosed with brain cancer, will join the franchise in UAE.

Another doubtful starter for their first match is captain Steve Smith, who suffered a concussion while batting in the nets in Manchester and missed the ODIs as a result.

“First and foremost, thoughts with the Stokes family. It’s a difficult scenario, so we’re giving him as much time as he needs, and connecting with him as best we can. So yeah, we’re not sure where Stokesy’s at right now, but once it has played out, then we can make our decisions from there. But I don’t want to second-guess what will happen with him just yet,” RR coach Andrew McDonald recently said.

“Steve Smith is a bit more clear-cut, I think. He needs a little bit of time, it was a short turnaround between game one and two where the concussion happened, so I’d imagine there were some lingering side effects," he added.