Ben Stokes, who has been one of the most expensive players in the IPL in the last few years, hasn’t registered for the IPL mega auction this time around and he clarified earlier today, while talking to Daily Mirror, that the reason he hasn’t registered is because his priority is test cricket and not the money.
While Ben Stokes has made the decision what he wants to prefer going ahead, it’s also worth noting that the English allrounder has earned more than 50 crore INR from the IPL, playing for Rising Pune Supergiant and Rajasthan Royals in the last 5 seasons.
Stokes had been out of the England squad for quite some time last year on mental health grounds and also, because of his finger injury. However, he made a surprise comeback for the Ashes and played all 5 test matches, but with very little success.
When there were rumors recently that Joe Root might be sacked as the England test captain, Stokes was tipped as a possible option for captaincy. For the time being, ECB hasn’t made a change in test captaincy, but Stokes remains one of the contenders.
IPL 2017 is the only fruitful IPL season Ben Stokes has had
As far as IPL is concerned, barring that 2017 IPL season where he played well with both bat and ball, Ben Stokes never really managed to justify his price tag in any of the seasons after that. In a couple of seasons, where he played for Rajasthan Royals, he was affected by injuries and personal issues as well.
Now if Stokes is indeed focused on test cricket, he will probably not enter the IPL auctions for the next 3 or 4 years which might well be the peak years of his career.
Stokes has himself admitted if he is not totally focused for the tournament, it would be totally unfair on the team he signs up for and that’s why he doesn’t want to sign up for the auction at all.
