England Test captain Ben Stokes will make his return to the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the upcoming edition of the tournament. Stokes, who had pulled out of the IPL mega auction earlier this year, was bought by the Chennai Super Kings for an hefty sum of Rs 16.25 crore at the mini-auction in Kochi on Friday. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Supergiants were involved in an intense bidding war, but it was CSK who entered the race late and eventually bought Stokes, who will be re-united with MS Dhoni, having playing with him during their time at the now defunct Rising Pune Supergiants.
CSK are known for being conservative in the spending at IPL auctions, but this time they decided to go all out to get.
Notably, Stokes is now CSK's most expensive buy, surpassing Deepak Chahar (Rs 14 crore).
CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan was asked in the media briefing after the third set whether he had received any message from captain Dhoni about going for 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 the all-rounder.
Stokes has a mixed bag of a record in the league and CSK would hope he turns up for the franchise as they look to equal Mumbai's record of 5 titles.
Stokes' compatriot, Sam Curran, on the other hand, became the most expensive player in the history of IPL auctions after fetching a whopping Rs 18.5 crore bid from Punjab Kings in Kochi.