Barrovian Liam Livingstone will not play for Rajasthan Royals in next year's Indian Premier League after a mutual decision was made between the two parties that he would not be retained.

Livingstone played in four matches for the Royals in the IPL during the spring, in which he made 71 runs, including a highest score of 44 off 26 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

However, the 26-year-old has made the decision to focus on red-ball cricket with Lancashire, who are back in the top flight of the County Championship after winning promotion from Division Two as champions last season.

Livingstone said: "It was a fantastic experience to play for the Rajasthan Royals last year. I loved every second, learned a lot, the boys were great and I was delighted to play my part. However, I’m going to have an increased focus on red ball cricket next summer, so the decision was made to stay in England for this.”

There will still be a considerable English presence in Rajasthan's squad next year, however, including Cumbria's Ben Stokes, who will be joined by fellow World Cup winners Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer.

Head coach Andrew McDonald said: “England has some of the finest white ball players in the world and there aren’t many better than Ben, Jos and Jofra.

We believe that retaining the likes of Jofra, Jos and Ben will be vital to the success of the team in the upcoming 2020 IPL season. It’s a real statement from us to retain three World Cup winners."

Livingstone still has plenty of T20 cricket to look forward to this winter, first in South Africa with Cape Town Blitz - who he smashed 65 off 41 balls for against Jozi Stars on Thursday - before heading to Australia to play for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League.