England all-rounder Ben Stokes is expected to return to IPL next season as he has shown interest in putting up his name for the upcoming mini-auction for the 2023 edition of the cash-rich league. Stokes missed the 2022 season to focus on Test cricket as he took over the captaincy charge from Joe Root. Under his captaincy, England have started playing a fearless brand of cricket in Tests as the head coach Brendon McCullum has brought some changes to their approach to the game.
The ace all-rounder has already announced his retirement from ODI cricket to manage his workload as he prioritised the other two formats over 50-over cricket.
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According to a report in Cricbuzz, Stokes is showing some interest to participate in IPL 2023 despite the fact that the Ashes series immediately follows the franchise league tournament in the 2023 summer.
The historic Ashes Test series will start on June 16 next year and IPL usually gets finished in the first week of June as the franchise owners and management will keep a tab on the availability of the English and Australian players for the upcoming season.
Apart from Stokes, two other rising all-rounders in world cricket at the moment – Sam Curran and Cameron Green are also highly likely to enter the auction. Curran already has rich experience of playing in IPL but he missed the last season due to injury, while Australia’s big future prospect Green will look to make a big name for himself in IPL next year.
Several teams who didn’t have an ideal last season are expected to offload some players ahead of the auction. Punjab Kings have already named new captain and coach for the next season – Shikhar Dhawan and Trevor Bayliss. They are expected to make big changes to their side with the auction coming.
The report suggested that Punjab are expected to release Mayank Agarwal (Rs 12 crore), Shahrukh Khan (Rs 9 crore) and Odean Smith (Rs 6 crore) to enter the auction with a big purse. Mayank was the captain of Punjab side last year but he failed to make any impact as he also had an underwhelming season with the bat. While their big buys Shahrukh and Odean also failed to live up to the expectations and were eventually dropped from the playing XI after few matches.
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Meanwhile, Istanbul is among the five venues shortlisted to host the IPL auction which is likely to be held on December 16, according to a BCCI official.
Besides the Turkish capital and Bengaluru, the usual venue for the auction, New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad are also in contention.
But a final call will be taken when the IPL Governing Council, under new chairman Arun Singh Dhumal, meets for the first time soon.
“No final decision has been taken yet but we are looking at Istanbul. We haven’t met the teams and their officials in a relaxed environment since COVID, and this way we will be able to do that. A final decision will be taken after talking to all stakeholders," the BCCI official told PTI.
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