Allowing England-qualified players to miss fixtures during the domestic season to play in another nation's domestic tournament is perverse - so why is the ECB letting Alex Hales go off to the IPL rather than play in the T20 Blast??
Hales should be playing v NZ instead. Players like Warner, Gayle and Dhawan have done well playing shots at the top of the order. Instead, England will go in with three left handed plodders in the first three v NZ and then v Aus. The problem is that if the middle order come in after, say, 20 overs (likely in English conditions), there's only 40 runs on the board instead of 65-70, so the initiative is never wrestled from the opposition. Anshot playing opener can put the bowlers off their lines and lengths and gain some momentum.
22 May - South Group
Kent 178 for 5 (Blake 71*, Northeast 60*, Smith 3-24) beat Hampshire 172 for 6 (Vince 66) by five wickets Sussex 175 for 6 (Wright 49, Jordan 37, Overton 2-33) beat Somerset 170 for 8 (Allenby 79, Beer 3-23) by five runs Essex 145 for 5 (Bopara 81*, Hogan 2-19) beat Glamorgan 144 for 8 (Cooke 31, Tait 3-28) by five wickets
29 May - North Group Derbyshire 128 for 5 (Amla 51) beat Lancashire 127 for 9 (Davies 41, White 3-21) Birmingham 150 for 5 (Porterfield 55*, Azharullah 3-30) beat Northamptonshire 146 for 7 (Levi 58) by five wickets Durham 182 for 4 beat Yorkshire 176 for 9 (Jennings 4-37) by six runs Worcestershire 149 for 4 (Mitchell 58) Leicestershire 147 for 6 by six wickets
29 May - South Group
Somerset 177 for 7 (Gayle 92, Napier 2-33) beat Essex 176 (Westley 68, Ryder 54, Thomas 4-37) by three wickets Kent 193 for 8 (Northeast 96, Cowdrey 42, Curran 3-31) beat Surrey 170 for 8 (Henriques 63) by 23 runs Middlesex 221 for 2 (Malan 115*, Stirling 88) Sussex 179 for 9 (Wright 91, Abbott 5-14) by 42 runs Hampshire 148 for 8 (Ervine 49, Smith 30, Wagg 4-27) beat Glamorgan 127 for 8 (Rudolph 38, Wallace 37, Wood 4-16) by 21 runs
5 June - South Group
Somerset 173 for 2 (Gayle 85*, Trego 51) beat Hampshire 167 for 3 (Vince 64*) by eight wickets Gloucestershire 157 for 1 (Klinger 69*, Cockbain 54*) beat Kent 156 for 6 (Bell-Drummond 31, Howell 3-18) by nine wickets Glamorgan 169 for 5 (Rudolph 60) beat Middlesex 165 for 5 (Malan 70) by four runs Essex 170 for 4 (Bopara 57, Westley 55) beat Surrey 169 for 8 (Sangakkara 58, Bopara 3-18) by six wickets
5 June - North Group
Worcestershire 211 for 3 (Moeen 90) beat Northamptonshire 197 for 7 (Cobb 80, Ajmal 3-53) by 14 runs Lancashire 186 for 6 (Buttler 71*, Maxwell 3-15) beat Yorkshire 185 for 8 (Root 55, Faulkner 3-27) by four wickets Leicestershire 152 for 4 (Akaml 76*, Ball 3-42) beat Nottinghamshire 148 for 7 (Hales 54, McKay 4-24) by six wickets Durham 147 for 7 (Collingwood 41) beat Derbyshire 142 for 9 (Dilshan 54, Hastings 3-29) by five runs
7 June - North Group Nottinghamshire 169 for 5 (Sammy 36*, Taylor 35*) beat Worcestershire 158 (Moeen 36, Whiteley 36, Patel 3-17, Fletcher 3-35) by 11 runs