IPL 2023: CSK Get A Bad News And Their Fans Have Their Sleep: The Chennai Super Kings are likely to miss the services of star all-rounder Ben Stokes from the playoffs, should they reach it, in IPL 2023 as the England Test captain has confirmed that he will play in the Test match against Ireland, which will start just 4 days after the IPL 2023 final.
The Ireland Test is the prologue to the blockbuster Ashes 2023 series.
“Yes, I’ll play,” Stokes answered when asked if he will play the Ireland Test. “I’ll be making sure that I give myself enough time to get back and play that [Ireland] game.”
CSK purchased Ben Stokes for INR 16.25 crore in the auction
England host Ireland at Lord’s from June 1. However, with the IPL final being scheduled for May 28, this gives CSK and skipper MS Dhoni a cause of worry of losing Ben Stokes, for whom CSK splashed INR 16.25 crore in the IPL 2023 auction, for the playoffs of the 16th edition of the IPL, which is all but certain to be the last season of MS Dhoni.
Being England’s Test captain and their talisman all-rounder Stokes was never going to skip the Ireland Test, which would be crucial ahead of the important Ashes series, the first time Stokes will lead England in an Ashes after becoming full-time skipper last year.
England have won 10 of the 11 Tests in the Stokes-McCullum era.
If CSK, MS Dhoni, and the fans have been thinking about giving Stokes the captaincy later in the season, Stokes not being available for the playoffs has put a dagger in their aspirations.
Not only for this season, but this has raised questions for the future as well for CSK: whether it will be a good choice to make Ben Stokes their next captain after Dhoni if Stokes will miss matches due to England duty.
MS Dhoni will remember the 2017 IPL, which was Ben Stokes’ maiden season in the IPL. Stokes helped Rising Pune Supergiant reach the playoffs, the team which Dhoni played when CSK were banned. However, due to the home Test summer clashing with the playoffs, Stokes returned back home, and Pune lost the 2017 IPL final to Mumbai Indians.
Ben Stokes was adjudged the Player of the Tournament, but Pune dearly missed his services in that final.
Along with Stokes, there are other English players – Joe Root, Mark Wood, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer, Harry Brook, and Sam Curran – who are contracted with the ECB and will play in the IPL 2023, of which Archer and Livingstone are unlikely to play in the Test.
While Stokes himself has committed to playing the Ireland Test, he’s left the door ajar for others to make a decision.
“I’ll probably get round the individuals and ask them what they want to be ready for for the Ashes, because those five games are obviously the big ones of the summer, and you’ve got to think about what lads want. But what if something was to happen in that game [Ireland] and we lose someone for the Ashes,” he said.
“It’s just one of those where you have to weigh up the options of what the individual person actually wants out of that week, versus do we really need to play that one. Because, obviously, I’m right in saying that series is bigger than that game against Ireland.”
