Ben Stokes leaves for England, to miss IPL 2023 playoffs Ben Stokes has left for England. After Chennai Super Kings' last league match in Delhi on Saturday (May 20), the England red ball captain has exited the CSK camp, confirmed franchise CEO Kasi Viswanathan. CSK, incidentally, have qualified for the play-offs in top two and potentially have two or three games in the season still. Stokes had hinted this about three months ago in New Zealand that he would skip the last week of the IPL to be in England well in time for their Test against Ireland starting on June 1. It was a different matter that there was denial from the franchise about it.
Bought for Rs 16.25 crore (just about $ 2 million), Stokes, one of the premier all-rounders of the game in the world, appeared in only two games for the franchise returning a very underwhelming performance of 15 runs and no wickets in the one over he bowled. Stokes' participation in the IPL was limited because of a knee injury which prevented him from bowling. Team management insisted they could not have picked him just for batting. Meanwhile, an ECB official has confirmed that Mark Wood will not return to India to play in the Eliminator for Lucknow Super Giants, who have qualified for the last four stage. The England pacer featured only in four games for the Lucknow team and returned home for the birth of his child in the last week of April and did not return since.
