IPL 2025: Harry Brook Withdraws
Author: Tom Penn
Updated At:
After a busy start to 2025, and with Test series against India and Australia still to come, England's Harry Brook has chosen to withdraw from the 2025 IPL.
The 26 year old said that he needed "time to recharge after the busiest period of my career to date" but his announcement could see the league implement a new rule, announced at the end of September last year, which stated that any player who is picked, but pulls out before the start of the season, will be banned from the following two seasons!
There was said to be an exemption for players with either an injury or medical condition but this is clearly not the case here.
Furthermore, Brook also withdrew from last year's tournament following the death of a grandparent and Delhi Capitals will have to make-do without him in 2025 just as they did in 2024.
Reasons behind Brook's withdrawal
Important Test year for England
While announcing his decision, the right-hander stated that "it is a really important time for England cricket and I want to fully commit for the upcoming series."
His country have a four-day Test against Zimbabwe towards the end of May before a five-Test series against India from late-June to early-August.
There will then be the small matter of an away Ashes series, beginning in Perth on 21 November as England try to wrestle back the urn, something they have not returned back from Australia with since 2010/11.
Brook is a very important part of England's Test side who hit a triple-century in Pakistan last year and his figures have been very impressive since making his debut in 2022.
| Year | Runs | Average |
| 2022 | 480 | 80.00 |
| 2023 | 701 | 53.92 |
| 2024 | 1100 | 55.00 |
Captaincy commitments on the horizon?
Following England's early exit from the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, captain Jos Buttler stood down as both ODI and T20I captain.
There has been speculation that Test skipper Ben Stokes could take on the ODI role with Brook said to be in pole position for the job in the shortest international format.
With leadership comes additional scrutiny, pressure and commitments so it could be that Brook's decision to pull out of the IPL is because he will shortly be given a new job!
What's next for Delhi Capitals?
Brook played in 11 matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2023 IPL and although he hit a century, his overall returns were disappointing, scoring 190 runs in total and averaging 21.11.
Some could argue that it will therefore not be such a huge loss for the Capitals who have plenty of other high quality batters in Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk Tristan Stubbs and KL Rahul.
But there is a gap to be filled in the squad and names such as Daryl Mitchell, Ben Duckett - who impressed in the Champions Trophy - and Dewald Brevis have all been mentioned as potential replacements.
