Chennai Super Kings have suffered a big blow even before the start of IPL 2023 as their new recruit Ben Stokes has confirmed that he won’t be available for the entire duration of the competition. The sixteenth edition of the tournament is scheduled to get underway on March 31 and end on May 28.
A couple of months ago, CSK had secured Ben Stokes’ services by buying him in the mini-auction. The Chennai-based outfit had spent a massive sum of Rs 16.25 crore to sign up the England Test captain. The England star, however, has confirmed that he won’t be able to play the entire competition in order to prepare for the Test summer.
IPL 2023 will end just four days before England’s first Test of the summer against Ireland at Lord’s (June 1) before the five-match Ashes series gets underway. And to make sure that he is well prepared for the Tests, the England skipper has decided to skip the latter stage of the IPL.
“Yes, I’ll play,” Ben 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.”
Ben Stokes last played in the IPL in 2021. He played just one game that season before an injury ruled him out of the competition. In 2022, he had taken a break from the game that saw him miss the IPL too.
With the England Test captain confirming that he would end his IPL campaign prematurely for the Test summer, it will be interesting to see whether his teammates follow suit or not. There are currently seven other Test players who will play in IPL 2023 – Joe Root, Mark Wood, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer, Sam Curran and Harry Brook.
Speaking ahead of the second Test against New Zealand, Stokes said that he would discuss what they need to be ready for the Ashes. The captain also left the door open for some of his teammates to miss the Ireland Test if they’d prefer.
“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 …
“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,” he said.