MS Dhoni and his team wrote history when they beat the Gujarat Titans in the finals of the 16th edition at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Chennai Super Kings won their fifth IPL title and equaled Mumbai Indians with the most IPL titles.
They did it without some of the big names on their side. One of the biggest names that featured this season in the yellow kit was English Test captain Ben Stokes. The franchise invested a huge amount of INR 16.25 crore to acquire him for the team. But it didn’t go as planned.
Stokes played only two games and missed the rest of the season due to injury and form. But despite that, Chennai successfully won the title, and Stokes also became the IPL winner without much contribution.
Speaking about his IPL experience with CSK, Stokes made a reference to English football legend John Terry and compared his role in the CSK team with his. Notably, Terry won the 2012 UEFA Champions League final without playing due to a suspension.
Earlier, there was a fear that Stokes would not be fit enough to play the Ashes after playing an entire season of the IPL. But it was all the opposite. He ended up using the most competitive T20 tournament as a proper training camp in preparation for the upcoming Ashes.
Stokes said, “I’ve then seen that as an opportunity to train as opposed to playing and then topping yourself up as the tournament goes along. Once you get into the tournament it’s like play, travel, all that kind of stuff. So, I was actually able to turn a disappointing situation into a positive one because I was able to concentrate on properly being able to train.”
He also admitted that, despite playing only two games in the season, he used the opportunity to train himself for the long English summer ahead. Stokes left the CSK camp after the last group match and reckoned that whatever time he had with CSK was a “blessing in disguise.”