England allrounder Ben Stokes, who became the highest paid overseas player in the Indian Premier League auction, is excited about sharing the dressing room with Steve Smith and M.S. Dhoni in his maiden stint at the cash rich event.
England players landed lucrative deals at the auction with Stokes bagging the biggest of them all after being bought for ₹14.5 crore by Rising Pune Supergiants.
“I am really looking forward to playing with M.S. Dhoni and Steve Smith. It will be great to share the dressing room with both these players. Dhoni is one of the biggest players in the world and Smith too is one of the best. While I have had some heated moments against Smith, looking forward to playing alongside him. He is an amazing player,” Stokes said in a Facebook chat on his official page.
Pune is the home ground for Supergiants and Stokes is looking forward to playing there.
“Pune is one of my favourite grounds. I had a great time during the ODI series against India and I am looking forward to coming back to this venue.”
Stokes also made it clear that he would be available for most of the IPL.
“I might miss only the last group game. I will play most of it. I will probably play the full season,” he said.
Another English cricketer who was bought for a whopping amount was T20 specialist Tymal Mills with Royal Challengers Bangalore paying as much as ₹12 crore.
Also seen in action will be England limited-over captain Eoin Morgan, who was snapped up by Kings XI Punjab for ₹2 crore.
Stokes hoped more English players would play IPL in the future. “Both Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler have had nothing but high praise for the tournament. Hopefully, you will see more England players in the future.”
Was he glued to the television when the auction was taking place in Bengaluru?
“I tried to watch it live on a stream but it wasn’t working so I had to follow it on Twitter! There were so many tweets on it that it was hard to keep up and I was awake from about 03:30. Then I had another hour’s sleep before I was up with the kids!”
