Ben Stokes will be playing for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2023. The England all-rounder was sold to CSK at a whopping price of ₹ 16.25 crore in the IPL 2023 auction, surpassing his previous best price of ₹ 14.50 crore paid by the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017.
Stokes was quick to express his excitement at joining MS Dhoni's team as he took to social media to tweet about his next team.
Stokes put up a yellow picture, a colour which has become synonimous with Chennai Super Kings.
This will be Stokes' second stint under MS Dhoni's captaincy after spending two seasons under the former India skipper at RPS.
Stokes is considered to be one of the greatest all-rounders in international cricket history. His IPL page bio describes him as a batter who "has the ability to take on the bowlers from the word go and can test batsmen with his disciplined bowling; he is the X factor that most teams yearn for."
Stokes has so far played 43 matches in the IPL since making his debut for RPS in 2017. He has amassed 920 runs and picked 28 wickets till date which includes two centuries with the bat and as many fifties.
'No message from Dhoni yet'
CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan was asked in the media briefing after the third set whether he had received any message from captain MS Dhoni about going for Ben Stokes.
To this Kasi said that there was no message from Dhoni about going for Stokes but the franchise had come into the auction prepared to shell out for a big name all-rounder and that they were happy to have secured the services of Ben Stokes.
