Joe Root believes recent success of Stokes will help them in Champions Trophy

England limited overs vice-captain Joe Root believes that the recent success of Ben Stokes in the ongoing Indian Premier League will benefit the hosts once the Champions Trophy kicks off in the country from 1st June. Stokes became the most expensive foreign cricketer in the league when the all-rounder was purchased at a whopping price of Rs. 14.5 crores during the auctions in February.

He finally made his mark with the bat by smashing an unbeaten century against the Gujarat Lions which ensured his franchise Rising Pune Supergiant chased down the required target with a delivery to spare. He literally decimated the GL bowlers to different parts of the ground and it was clean hitting by the southpaw. He kept smashing through the line and kept on connecting.

That particular innings has impressed Root who has taken over the test captaincy of the national team and will lead them for the first time against South Africa in July. Root was present at the official launch of England’s new kit and New Balance Flagship store in Oxford Street.

“I think he’s played brilliantly throughout. He was obviously under a lot of pressure going into the tournament, with the amount of money they’ve paid for him, and one thing that Ben’s always done throughout his career is respond well to pressure and to expectation.

“The more you put on him, the more responsibility you give him, the more you get from him. And with him becoming vice-captain of this side now, in the Test arena, I think you’ll just see more and more of that, and that’s really exciting. He’ll bring that confidence back and that will help him coming into the start of the [English international] summer and the Champions Trophy,” Root was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

There are total 8 representatives in the competition from England while it was 7 during the Big Bash League. Limited overs captain Eoin Morgan said that a big part of them improving and progressing to the next level depends on playing in some of the best T20 tournaments all around the world.

“A big part of our progression is playing in some of the world’s best tournaments.This year at the Big Bash we had a record seven players play at different franchises, at the IPL it’s eight – we have one in every team.

“Going into any world tournament, you have to try to either set the trend or be up with the trend and I think being exposed to the best competitions in the world allows us to get the most out of ourselves and also compete against the best,” Morgan said.