'They will not be able to do the hand-holding' - Aakash Chopra's take on Ben Stokes as CSK's potential captaincy candidate

England's Test captain Ben Stokes vowed to leave the IPL 2023 early so as to prepare for national games scheduled after the IPL. Stokes will be unavailable for Chennai Super Kings' fixtures during the later stages of the tournament as he will be travelling back home to prepare for not just the Ireland Test, but also the Ashes that follows next. 

The four-time IPL champions bought Stokes for a whopping INR 16.25 crore at the IPL 2023 player auction held in December 2022. The England Test skipper had been playing for Rajasthan Royals since 2018. In the 2021 season, he sustained a finger injury which ruled him out from the entire season after playing in only one match. 

Stokes recently said that he intends to return home early to prepare for their one-off Test against Ireland before the Ashes, and former India cricketer Aakash Chopra reckoned that it would be difficult for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to look at Ben Stokes as their potential skipper for future editions of the tournament.

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that if the MS Dhoni-led franchise is planning to make him the captain it could be a spanner in the works for them.  

"Some people were saying that the Chennai Super Kings gave so much money to Ben Stokes because they want to groom him for captaincy. If you want to groom him for captaincy and the heir apparent leaves in the last phase, even if Chennai have made up their mind, they will not be able to do the hand-holding,” he said.

"As they say pass on the baton - how will that happen because MS Dhoni will be captaining and halfway through if he says that he will give it to Stokes, he is not going to be available in the end. So that cannot happen," Chopra added.

It will be interesting to see Chennai's plan: Chopra

Chennai Super Kings have some positive news as pacer Deepak Chahar will be back in the team for the upcoming IPL. The 30-year-old pacer has been out of action for a while. He missed the whole of 2022 and the all-important T20 World Cup in 2022 but will is completely fit for the IPL 2023.

"It will be interesting to see Chennai's plan - does he (Stokes) even feature in their captaincy scheme of things or whether either Moeen Ali or Ruturaj Gaikwad could be their next captain? We shall find out," he concluded. 

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