“I think so; I think he will be captain. We have seen MS Dhoni try and pass the captaincy on; he has not been playing cricket regularly in between the IPL. It’s just an opportunity for MS Dhoni to pass the baton. I think, yes, they will do it straight away. Ben Stokes will be captain,”.

Our today’s discussion will depend on this particular quotation. We have just over with the auction event for the upcoming Indian Premier League on Friday, 23^rd December 2022. It was a heavy event with an entire budget of nearly 550 crores INR, where the IPL franchisees dealt with almost 200 cricketers for the next 16^th season. Meanwhile, we saw Ben Stokes transferred from Rajasthan Royals to Chennai Super Kings for a record amount of 16.25 crores INR. In fact, it was the costliest player purchase by CSK management. In the meantime, former legendary New Zealand all-rounder cricketer Scott Styris feels the quoted. So, here a question arises whether the team is looking for their next efficient leader after MS.

Ben Stokes as a captain:

We have seen Ben Stokes lead his national team England well, with bravery and expertise. In fact, his name is now counted as one of the best and most successful international cricket captains in cricket history. Even his contribution in the last ICC ODI World Cup and T-20 World Cup was remarkable as both an all-rounder and a captain. But is it similar to being a captain at an international level and leading a club in a competition? The answer is quite tricky and unpredictable as most of us refuse to think of anyone else in the sit of Mr Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Stokes needs to gain the trust of his team and the supporters as Mahi did during the last seasons of IPL.

Dhoni might be playing his last IPL season for CSK, has the responsibility of choosing his successor on his shoulders. Though MS moved the leadership role to Ravindra Jadeja last year, he relinquished the responsibility in the middle of the season, forcing the management to reinstate Dhoni as skipper.

We have no doubt that Ben Stokes is one of the most sought-after all-rounders in modern cricket. In his overall IPL career, Stokes has shown what he could do best with the bat and ball. But now, after getting sifted, does he have what it requires to lead Chennai Super Kings? Even if Stokes is seen as a prominent captaincy candidate, the CSK might prefer to give him some time to settle down with the atmosphere before deciding to put a load of captaincy on him.

Stokes’s IPL career:

Ben Stokes has had a brilliant career in his overall cricketing journey. He joined the very hot IPL season in 2017 for Rising Pune Supergiant and next year changed to Rajasthan Royals with 12.50 crores INR. This all-rounder played his next four seasons for this same team and was finally brought into Chennai Super Kings. However, he has had a good journey in the all-over seasons of the Indian cricket league. Ben has arrived in 43 matches and made an average run of 25.55, with a very good strike rate of 134.50 being a batter. Stokes have taken 28 wickets from all the 43 IPL matches he appeared on. Let’s have a look at the statistical tables accordingly.

Batting and fielding performance in 2017-21:

Bowling performance in 2017-21:

Our realization:

Here we can see in the overall IPL career, Ben Stokes has gone through a satisfactory performance with both his batting and bowling. So, the sooner he gets a grip on his new team, the sooner it will be seen whether Styris’s prediction becomes true or not.