Ben Stokes opening the batting for Rajasthan Royals

Ben Stokes is a gun all-rounder and is one of the biggest attractions of the Indian Premier League. He had made his debut in the IPL 2017 for the Rising Pune Supergiant but moved on to Rajasthan Royals, for whom he has done amazingly well.

Though RR has had their share of problems with captaincy, which changed hands multiple times over the last few years, with Ajinkya Rahane handing over the captaincy to Steve Smith mid-season in 2019 IPL. Their biggest concern going into the IPL 2020 was the availability of Ben Stokes, who was in New Zealand when the tournament started.

His father Ged was diagnosed with brain cancer and Ben was there for his father and family, skipping the West Indies and Pakistan series for England in the process. However, Stokes confirmed that he will play in the IPL 2020, though missing a few matches in the process.

IPL 2020: Ben Stokes values precious time spent with father in Christchurch

RR was in need of that boost from Stokes as they languished in the bottom half of the points table. He played his first match of IPL 13 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and for some reason, the Royals’ think tank decided that it would be peachy for Stokes, who is a gun finisher in the middle order, to open the innings with his England teammate Jos Buttler.

The experiment failed with Stokes making 7 runs against SRH, but he came good against DC, making 41 runs. But he didn’t look comfortable opening the innings, but RR has decided to stick with the decision for time being. Even in the recent match against RCB, he managed just 15 runs in 19 balls, and the realization must dawn on RR by now, that he is not an opener.

Let’s hope Stokes can inspire RR into the playoffs as they need atleast 5 wins from their remaining matches to do so.