It’s not about the penny, affirms Ben Stokes

“Gun!” was Jos Butler’s reaction when Ben Stokes enquired Jos about his IPL experience. That’s the expression English players use to express “It was awesome”. Come Monday morning, Stokes may wake up as a millionaire having landed a lucrative deal in the IPL 2017 Auction which is slated to begin at 9 am on February 20.

Even though English players were not keenly contested for during the previous auctions, barring a few aberrations like KP, Freddie and Morgan, things are quite different this time around with strong individual performances from few of the English players in the recently concluded English tour of India. When it came to picking foreign players, the Poms were overlooked in favour of Aussies and Proteas for a mixture of reasons ranging from skill sets to availability.

This time round though Stokes is a strong frontrunner among the Britishers with the multi-dimension he brings to the table. He was more than explosive during the Indian trip and is very handy with the ball given his ability to constantly clock 140 kph+. In the field, he’s not the one to be hidden away, but the one who is posted in key positions by the captains for his safe pair of hands in the slip or never-say-die attitude in the quick outfields.

Stokes is inspired by the transformation Jos has gone through post his IPL stint with Mumbai Indians last year. He perceives that Butler’s hitting has gone to another level in terms of consistency. The whole idea about rubbing shoulders with the best talent in the world has clearly excited the allrounder about the IPL experience.

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He was quoted the Telegraph as saying, “We are a very strong team England wise but it will be nice to go away somewhere and focus on the skills that I want to get better at in T20 which are hitting the boundary, different areas and different options with the bat. How to bowl in a given situation but then also doing it against the best players in the world that those competitions (IPL) attract. Observing those players as well close up is another big thing. Just being in an environment with these guys, training with them, picking their minds on cricket is the kind of thing you can only benefit from.”

His mind seems to be set on improving his execution in the cricket field rather than the boost it’s going to give his bank accounts and the deals he can get.

ECB also has gone easy with the prospect for Stokes, who is likely to be given the permission to miss the Ireland ODI for IPL. At the moment, he’s not going to worry about it and will let Neil Fairbrother, his agent, to worry about the auctions.

Written by Rameez Mannil