England Check captain Ben Stokes has made himself unavailable for the 2024 Indian Premier League with a view to handle his workload and health.
Stokes was Chennai Tremendous Kings’ costliest signing for the 2023 IPL however performed simply twice on account of harm points.
A press release from CSK mentioned their “administration is supportive” of Stokes’ “resolution to handle his workload”.
Stokes scored solely 15 runs and bowled one over for 18 runs in his two appearances for the Tremendous Kings within the 2023 competitors.
The dates for the 2024 version of the IPL have but to be confirmed however the T20 event is predicted to happen from the top of March by means of to the top of Could.
Stokes has been hampered by a persistent knee concern all through current years, though he declined to disclose extra in regards to the precise nature of the harm or the operation when requested about it throughout the World Cup earlier this month.
He made a shock u-turn on his one-day worldwide retirement to play in England’s World Cup defence and after doing so mentioned he had a “very good plan in place” to fix the injury problem.
Stokes has not bowled since 1 July – day 4 of the second Ashes Check at Lord’s – which has left England with difficulties balancing their Check and 50-over groups.
England’s Check collection with India is because of start on 25 January in Visakhapatnam.
Different gamers may resolve to comply with go well with – evaluation
BBC chief cricket author Stephan Shemilt
This is not an enormous shock. Stokes joined Chennai for a whopping £1.63m price ticket in late 2022, however solely performed two video games as Tremendous Kings gained the IPL this 12 months.
Regardless that Stokes is having surgical procedure to hopefully ease the ache in his troublesome knee, there are health considerations from each events: Stokes for his workload, CSK for having on their books an costly abroad participant that they may not have the ability to totally utilise.
That is additionally a novel interval for multi-format England gamers, given the prolonged period of time they may very well be required to spend in India. The World Cup, adopted by 5 Checks from January, then the IPL, may imply six months in India between October and Could. In addition to Stokes, the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook and Mark Wooden may resolve that’s an excessive amount of.
For any English participant on the IPL, there might be a conflict with house internationals in opposition to Pakistan in Could that can type the ultimate preparations for the T20 World Cup in June. After such an terrible 50-over World Cup, will probably be fascinating to see how Rob Key manages these gamers within the build-up to the defence of the title within the Caribbean and USA.
