Steve Smith welcomes his new teammate Ben Stokes with a wonderful tweet

Andrew Strauss will be extremely proud of his decision for letting his players play in the IPL. England players stole the limelight during the auctions. Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills got mouthwatering deals as other players did well too.

Stokes will now play beside his Australian counterpart Steve Smith. The player from down under even congratulated him with a tweet. Smith, who will captain this year’s campaign for the Rising Pune Supergiants as Dhoni was sacked by the franchise, tweeted a welcome message to Stokes.

He welcomed him while telling him that the first round of the drinks will be on the brit. He said, “Welcome to Pune @benstokes38 first round is on you!”

Welcome to Pune @benstokes38 first round is on you!

— Steve Smith (@stevesmith49) February 20, 2017

@stevesmith49 And the second ?? @benstokes38 https://t.co/fCpeu32bMF

— Faf Du Plessis (@faf1307) February 20, 2017

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.

Sanjeev Goenka who happens to be the 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.”

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He also termed him as a hero among many heroes they have. “We have many heroes but this is the one hero that we were lacking,” said Sanjeev while addressing the media. Ben will play alongside the likes of Steve Smith, MS Dhoni, Faf Du Plessis and many more destructive players.

Goenka said he always knew that the England all-rounder was going to be expensive. He also believes that he will be available for the first 14 games and that’s the major chunk of the tournament. “We knew he was going to be expensive. We do believe he is going to be there for the first 14 games,” he was quoted saying.