IPL 2024: Why Adam Zampa Pulled Out Of Tournament Ahead Of Rajasthan Royals' Season Opener?

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Australian spinner Adam Zampa has revealed the reasons for his withdrawal from the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, where the tweaker was slated for his second successive season with Rajasthan Royals.

Zampa, who was retained by the Royals ahead of last year's auction for 1.5 crore rupees, decided to opt out of the cash-rich league on the eve of the season opener, citing personal reasons.

The right-arm wrist spinner was a part of RR's trio of spinners including India's Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. In six matches last season for the inaugural champions, Zampa claimed 8 wickets with the best of 3 for 22 in RR's win against Chennai Super Kings.

Following the Australian spinner's withdrawal, RR signed uncapped Tanush Kotian as a replacement on the back of his recent domestic season performance for Mumbai. The Royals also roped in South Africa's Keshav Maharaj to stock their spinning options.

Now, a fortnight after his withdrawal, the ODI World Cup winner has explained why he decided to opt out of the IPL 2024 on the eve of the tournament opener.

The 32-year-old revealed that he was "completely drained" after the conclusion of the ODI World Cup and felt he couldn't offer RR the best version of himself.

"There are several reasons why the IPL wasn't for me this year. I think the most important one was the fact that it's a World Cup year and I'm completely drained from 2023. I did the full IPL last year. Obviously, the World Cup was three months in India as well," Zampa told the Willow Talk podcast as quoted from cricket.com.au.

"So I had the best intentions of trying to play the IPL again this year. But once push came to shove, I felt like I just couldn't really offer the Rajasthan Royals the best version of myself and looking forward to the World Cup, that's what's more important to me, that's for sure," he added.

With RR already enjoying the services of star Indian spinners, Chahal and Ashwin, Zampa, who may be part of Australia's T20 World Cup squad, wasn't sure about the game time he would get in the long IPL campaign.

"It came down to my decision being I probably need to put my body and my mental health first. Then you throw a lot of other things into the equation as well, like the fact that I've got a young family. It's not easy to spend nine weeks in India in my situation where I'm fighting for my spot in the team as well," he said.

"It's not like I can say to myself, 'well, that's alright I've got 14 games to prepare for a World Cup'. I don't know whether or not that's actually going to be two games or four games or six games. So I kind of worked out that maybe just to rest, putting my family first, putting my body first, was better for me," he added.

Zampa, who had faced criticism for pulling out of the tournament when representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2021, went on to state that he wasn't to "fussed" about the reaction he would receive from opting out of IPL 2024.

"It's not an easy decision because you've always got that voice in the back of your mind going, 'pulling out of the IPL, what are people going to say?," he said.

"What happens the next time you want to go to the IPL? Do people kind of paint you with that brush?'. But I wasn't too fussed about it once I made that decision, I knew it was the right one."