Chennai Super Kings (CSK) CEO Kasi Viswanathan revealed captain MS Dhoni’s reaction to the franchise buying England all-rounder Ben Stokes at the IPL 2023 auction in Kochi on Friday (December 23).
CSK tried to bring Sam Curran back to the side at the auction, but PBKS broke their bank to acquire the England all-rounder’s services at INR 18.5 crore on Friday, making him the most expensive cricketer in IPL history. After which, CSK fought hard to finally get Stokes for INR 16.25 crore at the IPL 2023 auction.
With the price tag, Stokes became the joint-third most expensive player in the history of the IPL auction. Well, the acquisition of England’s Test skipper has given rise to speculation that he might be CSK’s next captain whenever Dhoni calls time on his IPL career.
Reacting to the noise, Viswanathan said that Dhoni will take a call on the captaincy when the time comes, but he is happy to have Stokes in the team.
Kasi Viswanathan was quoted by ESPNCricinfo: “Very excited to get Stokes and we were lucky also because he came up at the end. We wanted an allrounder and MS was very happy that we got Stokes. Captaincy option is there but it’s a call MS will take with time.”
On purchasing Kyle Jamieson’s for INR 1 crore at the auction, the CSK CEO said: “Kyle Jamieson was injured so maybe many others didn’t look at him. We had information from Fleming that he had recovered and was raring to go. CSK looks bright and I hope we do well this season. We follow the process always and that will help us do well.”
Notably, a total of 80 players were sold at the IPL 2023 auction for a whopping Rs 167 crore.
