The Chennai Super Kings splurged out INR 16.25 crore for Ben Stokes, the England Test captain and one of the greatest-ever cricketers, at the IPL 2023 auction, making Stokes the most expensive CSK player of all time.
After the retirement of Dwayne Bravo from the CSK – he has joined CSK as a bowling coach – Stokes’ addition fills those big boots of the West Indian all-rounder; however, Bravo was a death-specialist bowling all-rounder with little contribution from the bat, and Stokes is more of a batting all-rounder.
Stokes’s acquisition means that he is also now the most likely candidate to take the captaincy baton over from MS Dhoni after the IPL 2023, which is all but certain to be Thala’s swansong.
CSK also bought Kyle Jamieson at his base price of INR 1 crore. Although Jamieson is an unlikely starter on the Chapauk pitch, he could be relied upon in venues where pacers get help. Ajinkya Rahane, the 34-year-old Indian veteran batsman, was picked up at his base price of 50 lakh, providing an Indian backup for Ambati Rayudu and filling in the squad for the retired Robin Uthappa.
CSK Players bought at IPL 2023 auction: Ben Stokes (16.25 cr), Kyle Jamieson (1 cr), Ajinkya Rahane (50 lakh), Shaik Rasheed (20 lakh), Nishant Sindhu (60 lakh), Ajay Mandal (20 lakh), Bhagath Varma (20 lakh)
CSK best XI for IPL 2023:
Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (c,wk), Deepak Chahar, Mukesh Choudhary, Maheesh Theekshana
CSK’s best XI from the squad after the IPL 2023 auction bores a similar look to their side from last season, with the exception of Stokes coming in for Uthappa and Chahar returning to replace the overseas pacer.
CSK bat deep – really deep – with Chahar slotted in at number 9 here. As MS Dhoni likes, he has three spinners in this XI to play with when CSK play in the Chepauk. Pretorious can come in for Theekshana when he doesn’t need the extra spinner and Pretorious brings in a death-overs pedigree as a pacer.
They have a solid bench in terms of bowlers – Hangargekar, Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Jamieson, and Tushar Deshpande.
CSK finished 9th in the points table last season. For what is probably going to be Dhoni’s last IPL, they’d want to send him off with another IPL trophy.
Full squad
Openers: Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ajinkya Rahane, Shaik Rasheed
Middle order: Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati
Wk: MS Dhoni
All-rounders: Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajay Mandal, Nishant Sindhu, Bhagath Varma
Spinners: Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana
Fast bowlers: Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kyle Jamieson
