Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought English all-rounder Ben Stokes for Rs 16.25 crore at the IPL 2023 Mini Auction in Kochi on Friday.
Celebrating his selection for his new home, Stokes shared a photo with yellow colour via his official Twitter handle. The explosive all-rounder was earlier part of the Rajasthan Royals but will now be representing the men in yellow.
With his inclusion in CSK, the English all-rounder will be playing along with MS Dhoni, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dwaine Pretorius, Mitchell Santner, Ravindra Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chowdhary, Matheesha Pathirana, Simarjeet Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Solanki, and Maheesh Theekshana.
After the auction, Stokes became the third most expensive player in the IPL auction. While Sam Curran took the title of the most expensive player with Rs 18.50 crore and was included in Punjab Kings. The second position was occupied by Cameron Green, with Rs 17.50 crore. West Indies wicket-keeper batsman Nicholas Pooran closely followed Stokes with Rs 16 crore as his final bid.
Apart from Rajasthan Royals, Stokes has also played for now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants, who bought the player for Rs 14.5 crore in 2017. The all-rounder has so far played 43 games in his career. He has so far amassed 920 runs at a strike rate of 134.50 in the cash-rich league.