Chennai Super Kings buys England's Ben Stokes for a MASSIVE INR 16.25 crore

Ben Stokes went to Chennai Super Kings for Rs 16.25 crore at the IPL 2023 Auction in Kochi on Friday. Bidding for England's Test captain Stokes started at Rs 2 crore and skyrocketed as Rajasthan Royals joined Royal Challengers in a bidding war. Lucknow Super Giants joined in the bidding with Sunrisers Hyderabad as Royals bowed out. CSK finnaly came in swooped Stokes with Rs 16.25 crore.

Chennai did well to pick up Stokes in a solid all-rounder and captaincy option. They missed out on Sam Curran who went to Punjab Kings for a whopping Rs 18.50 crore, setting a new record in IPL auction history. CSK also bought Ajinkya Rahane for Rs 50 lakh.

Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad flexed their muscles early, bagging Harry Brook and Mayank Agarwal for Rs 13.25 and Rs 8.25 crore respectively. 

CSK went into the IPL 2023 auction with a purse of Rs 20.45 crore. The Chennai franchise led by former India captain MS Dhoni had total seven slots available with two overseas slots. After buying Stokes and Rahane, they now have spend Rs 16.75 crore with Rs 3.7 crore remaining in purse.

Current CSK squad

Retained players: MS Dhoni, Devon Conway (NZ), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ambati Rayudu, Subhranshu Senapati, Moeen Ali (ENG), Shivam Dube, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwaine Pretorius (SA), Mitchell Santner (NZ), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Choudhary, Matheesha Pathirana (SL), Simarjeet Singh, Prashant Solanki, Maheesh Theekshana (SL).

Players bought in IPL auction: Ben Stokes (ENG), Ajinkya Rahane (IND)

Total slots available now for CSK: 5

Overseas slots available now: 1

Follow latest updates from the IPL 2023 auction here: Live Updates | IPL Auction 2023: Mayank Agarwal, Kane Williamson in set 1; latest updates