England All-rounder Ben Stokes had a quite good IPL tournament but he had to join back the national team to play 3-ODI series against South Africa just before Champions Trophy. Stokes bagged a hefty sum of Rs. 14.5 crores which was the highest bid in this year’s IPL auctions. Rising Pune Supergiant was the IPL franchise which brought Stokes to their side.
Though he knows that he had to leave Rising Pune Supergiant after playing league matches of the tournament, he had performed to his potential and played a key role in pushing his team to the playoffs. His all-round abilities were crucial to Pune’s chances in the tournament and we saw him excelling with both bat and the ball.
England faces South Africa in a 3 match limited overs series and the England Cricket Board felt that it was the correct time to call back Stokes. Stokes is said to be England’s trump card in Champions Trophy. Thus, Stokes had to leave RPS team without playing playoffs.
As Stokes left the RPS team to join the national team, the former English batsman Kevin Pietersen who was a part of the commentary panel for playoffs expressed his disappointment as the ECB didn’t allow Stokes to participate in the playoffs.
He took to Twitter to say:
Absolutely PATHETIC that @benstokes38 & @josbuttler have to go drink a few beers in Spain instead of playing IPL finals!
— KP (@KP24) May 14, 2017
However, Ben Stokes has responded to Kevin Pietersen’s beer jibe. Stokes took to his Instagram handle and replying to Pietersen, posted a story where he shared a video of him working out with a caption, Beers in Spain with a thinking emoji.
Ben Stokes took a dig at Kevin Pietersen for his comments about leaving early? (via Instagram) pic.twitter.com/PdXymr0aDM
— Ankit Mishra (@editedidea) May 17, 2017
Stokes scored 316 runs in 12 matches and also picked up 12 wickets in the ongoing IPL tournament. Stokes will undoubtedly be England’s most feared player in the Champions Trophy and his performances will go a long way in deciding whether England can break their ICC tournament jinx and win a 50 over format event for the first time.