‘He is crucial not only…’ – Eoin Morgan’s unique claim on why Ben Stokes would bag highest bid
The Indian T20 League 2023 is fast approaching and the mini-auction for the same will take place on December 23, Friday and it remains to be seen if the teams could rope in their desired players and find the right balance for the upcoming season. As things stand, the likes of Cameron Green, Sam Curran and Ben Stokes are expected to bag the highest bid, alongside the likes of Jason Holder and Odean Smith.
Ahead of the mini-auction, the former England cricketer and skipper Eoin Morgan opened up on the English allrounder and Test captain Ben Stokes and said that the allrounder might go for huge money in the auction and added that the southpaw is worth every single penny spent on him. Notably, Stokes has evolved over time and has become the best allrounder at the moment across all formats, although he is retired from the ODIs.
The likes of Punjab and Hyderabad have INR 32.2 crore and INR 42.25 crore in their purse and it is more likely that the teams might go all out for the hot picks and are expected to play the spoilsport. While Chennai would be desperate to get either Curran or Holder, the two teams could go all out for Stokes.
He is a magnificent leader: Eoin Morgan
Backing Punjab, Morgan said that it was necessary for the team to have someone like Stokes in their squad in the previous editions. For the unversed, the franchise’s last best edition was in 2014, when they managed to reach the finals. The former English cricketer claimed that the franchise would need him this year, given that they would be hoping to put an end to their poor run.
“Absolutely, he is worth every penny. When you talk about recruitment in certain areas of the game, which is high-performance, you look at all-rounders because they are such key personnel in the shortest format of the game,” Morgan was quoted as saying by India Today.
“Ben Stokes is crucial not only with his leadership, we have seen that with England Test team lately and his performances in white-ball cricket over the years but he brings a huge amount of experience under pressure. And I think Punjab this year will need that at forefront of their campaign,” he added.
