Can't wait to meet everyone at Rising Pune Supergiants: Ben Stokes

The much awaited IPL 2017 auctions got underway and it is only fair to say that the auctions were highly surprising. What did not come as a surprise was the best buy of the auction. Weeks leading into the auctions, the name of English all-rounder Ben Stokes was floating on the media as the man to be watched out for at the auctions. Much like the build up, the auctions heated up when his name sprung up for the grabs. Ben Stokes at the age of 25 has bagged a deal worth INR 14.5 crores which is equal to 1.7m in pounds.

He was battled out by three teams and grabbed by the fourth. Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad all battled it out for him but it was Pune who eventually got him with a mind-blowing 14.50 crores bid. Sanjiv Goenka, owner of the Pune franchise sounded positive after spending big on Stokes. He was quick to point out that they were lacking a genuine all-rounder. He said “He’s a complete player and he completes our squad. We’ve been lacking this one genre of player.”

Soon after he managed to be the biggest purchase of the auction, he was welcomed by the newly appointed RPS skipper Steve Smith and fellow RPS teammate Faf du Plessis. Now, in his personal blog posted on benstokes38.com, the Brit spoke about his reactions on the day. He noted that the entire week has been an amazing one for him. He was recently named as the vice-captain of the England Test team. He started off with a remark on being named as the deputy of Joe Root.

“It’s been a pretty incredible week and, considering you normally have your most exciting times when you’re playing, it’s been an amazing and interesting few days. I had a chat with Andrew Strauss and James Whitaker and had the call on Sunday to say that Rooty was going to be captain and asking if I would be vice captain, which is something I wouldn’t turn down in a million years. I’m just really looking forward to working with Joe and I can’t wait for the summer, although it’s a strange feeling that we don’t have a Test match until July,” remarked Ben Stokes.

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The all-rounder then spoke about the IPL auctions. He cited that he tried following the auctions online but could not. He fell asleep and got up in an hour to check back. He was surprised and pleased to see that he was roped in by Rising Pune Supergiants in the IPL.

“I tried to watch it live on a stream but it wasn’t working so I had to follow it on Twitter! There were so many tweets on it that it was hard to keep up and I was awake from about 03:30. Then I had another hour’s sleep before I was up with the kids!” said Stokes.

He further pointed out that being a part of the best and the biggest franchise cricket tournament in the world is an exciting prospect. He could not wait to be a part of the tournament and is very excited to catch up with his new teammates at RPS.

“I’m really pleased now that it’s sorted and it’s started to sink in.  I’ve been talking about it with Neil Fairbrother for the last three years or so – I really trust his opinion – and we felt this was the time to go for it. The excitement is huge, it’s the biggest franchise competition in the world with all of the biggest and best players involved. I can’t wait to get over there and meet everyone at Rising Pune Supergiants and I’m really grateful to them for giving me this opportunity. In terms of cricket experience, it will only do me the world of good,” conceded Ben Stokes.