English all-rounder Ben Stokes has been auctioned for Rs 16.25 crore and will be playing in the next IPL tournament from Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Celebrating his selection for his new home, Ben Stokes tweeted a photo with yellow colour via his official Twitter handle. It is to be noted that the all-rounder was earlier part of the Rajasthan Royals but will now be standing on the side of men in yellow.
With his selection, the English all-rounder will be playing alongside MS Dhoni, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, and Maheesh Theekshana.
— Ben Stokes (@benstokes38) December 23, 2022
Ben Stokes also became the third most expensive player in the IPL auction 2023 (until the time of writing). While Sam Curran took the title of the most expensive player with Rs 18.50 crore, joining Punjab Kings. The second position was occupied by Cameron Green, with Rs 17.50 crore. While Nicholas Pooran closely followed Ben Stokes with Rs 16 crore as his final bid.
Also read: LIVE Updates | IPL 2023 Mini Auction Retained & Released Players List
Besides Rajasthan Royals, Ben Stokes has also played for now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants, who bought the player for Rs 14.5 crore in 2017. The current England player has 43 games in his IPL record, with a score of 920 runs at a strike rate of 134.50.
The England captain has currently retired from the ODI format to focus on T20 and Test Cricket. The retirement seems to be working, as the captain recently won the T20 World Cup 2022 for England. However, the performance of the English man remains to be seen in the Indian Premier League.
