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Stokes fit to captain England against Zimbabwe

2 May 25

Ben Stokes has stated that Test cricket is his "number one priority" as he has opted out of the IPL auction this weekend.

Stokes won the IPL MVP award in 2017 and was the most expensive player in the 2018 auction, when the Rajasthan Royals paid Rs. 12.5 crore (about £1.37 million) for him, although he has yet to register for the mega-auction in 2022.

Stokes wrote in his Daily Mirror column that he had "thought long and hard" whether or not to enter the auction, but that playing two months of early-season County Championship cricket would best prepare him and England for their first home Test against New Zealand on June 2.

Along with Joe Root, Sam Curran, and Chris Woakes, Stokes is one of numerous multi-format England players who will not be auctioned in Bengaluru, though others including as Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, and Mark Wood will.

In order to prepare for the first Test, any England Test players selected in the IPL are likely to miss the concluding stages of the season.

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Stokes to miss early county games in fitness battle

31 Mar 25

"It was a bitterly disappointing Ashes campaign Down Under, but we have to learn from it and begin the job of building the team back to where we want to be," Stokes wrote. "It will take time, of course it will. Even the white-ball team took time to get to the point where we could win a World Cup,” Stokes said.

"And we need to go on a similar journey with the Test team now, with everyone involved 100 percent committed to doing what is necessary to improve and be among the best teams again,”

"That is my approach to it. Test cricket is absolutely my number one priority, and I want to work alongside Joe Root, the best man we could have as captain, to get us there. It is why I thought long and hard about whether to go to the IPL or not, and felt that this was not about the money but about where my priorities are. It wouldn't be fair on any team I signed up for if I wasn't totally focused on things out there,”

"The Test team is where it is at for me right now and I want to give as much of my time and energy to that as possible. I think the Test side will benefit more from me playing a number of County Championship matches this summer and getting myself as best prepared as possible for the challenges of New Zealand and South Africa."