The IPL 2023 auction took place at Kochi on December 23 with all the 10 IPL teams adding some much-needed fresh faces and more firepower to their arsenal. Four-time champs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) came up with a statement of intent as they landed England Test skipper Ben Stokes for a mammoth Rs 16.25 crore, equalling Chris Morris' previous record of IPL's most expensive recruit.
While Sam Curran joined Punjab Kings (PBKS) earlier in the day for a staggering Rs 18.5 crore, overtaking Morris, CSK fans were ecstatic as they missed out on Curran but Stokes is no stranger to the league either.
As soon as the bidding for Stokes was done, Twitter was flooded with reactions as plenty of fans speculated that finally CSK had found their successor to MS Dhoni, and they wanted Stokes to captain the Yellow Army.
When quizzed about the same on Jio Cinema's post-IPL auction show, the Universe Boss Chris Gayle gave a no-nonsense verdict on who should lead CSK in IPL 2023.
Gayle opted for Dhoni, saying that once if 'Thala' is playing, he will be seen leading a side.
Watch:
"Dhoni. Once you are playing, you lead a team, okay? Done," replied Gayle to host Suhail Chandhok. While Gayle's sentiment was understandable, Dhoni was seen playing simply as a player and not as a captain last season itself, when he stepped down as CSK's leader two days before the start of the league campaign.
Ravindra Jadeja took over as the skipper, but the Yellow Army struggled to perform before Jadeja relinquished the captaincy mid-way through the season.
Interestingly, Stokes has never led an IPL franchise before, but he's leading England's Test side with much success so it remains to be seen whether he takes over the captaincy hat after Dhoni or not.
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 "MS Dhoni or Ben Stokes? Chris Gayle gives no-nonsense verdict on who should lead CSK in IPL 2023; watch")
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