England’s star all-rounder Ben Stokes has decided to be a part of the upcoming 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after missing this year’s tournament. Ben Stokes had last featured in the IPL in 2021 however he didn’t put his name for the mega-auction earlier this year due to England’s tight schedule.
Ben Stokes, who took over as England’s Test captaincy before the home season, stated that he wanted to channel all his energies into leading his side to do well in the longest format of the game and hence decided to skip the previous edition of the Indian Premier League.
Ben Stokes sustained a finger injury in the first game of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League, where he was playing for Rajasthan Royals, and was ruled out of the rest of the tournament.
Ben Stokes is preparing for another IPL season despite having retired from ODIs. Recently, Ben Stokes played a match-winning knock against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2022 final. Even though England was chasing a modest total, they needed a player to steady the ship and this is when Stokes came to their rescue. England was already three wickets down in the powerplay. Stokes registered his first T20I fifty during this process, and what a perfect time to do so.
Meanwhile, all thanks to his performance in the T20 World Cup 2022 final, England’s white-ball coach Matthew Mott is hopeful that Stokes will return to the ODI lineup. As a multi-dimensional player, Mott claimed that he has a lot to offer to England’s white-ball squad. As per him, he has left the door open for Stokes and has asked him to make a return to the 50-over format for a while.
“When he spoke to me about his ODI retirement one of the first things I said was that I’d back any decision he made, but I said to him he didn’t necessarily have to retire, he could just not play 50-overs for a while. And I said: ‘You could always unretire’,” Mott was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
