Reports: Ben Stokes pulls out of IPL 2022 citing recovery of England's Test form

England all-rounder Ben Stokes has opted out of IPL 2022 with his nation’s Test team in disarray in total and wants to help them recover their bad form. The Joe Root led side was thrashed apart 0-4 by the hosts Australia in the recently concluded Ashes and are struggling at the bottom of the World Test Championship 2021-23 table with 6 losses in 10 games. Their poor form had started in the home series against India where they were trailing in the series 1-2 until Covid-19 suspended the series.

After the completion of the fifth Test, Root had notified about not taking part in the upcoming IPL 2022 to make sure that England work on their Test side and gets things right back. Stokes has followed his captain now and there were suggestions of the all-rounder to take up the captaincy for England as the former likes to take responsibility.

The left-hand batter did have some good outings with the bat in the Ashes but could not convert into decisive ones so that his side benefits.

Stokes to focus on rebuilding England Test team

According to reports from I news, Stokes has opted out of IPL 2022 and he is expected to miss a lucrative deal as he did in the previous mega auction in 2018. Rajasthan Royals broke the bank for Stokes with a $ 1.4 million deal in 2018 and they secured his services of him until the previous edition of IPL 2021 where he played just two games.

It is no doubt that Stokes would have earned a huge sum of money if he had entered the mega auction of IPL 2022 as the Royals didn’t retain him There have been speculations of England’s preference to limited-overs cricket playing a big part in their downfall in the longer format. They won the World Cup in 2019 under Eoin Morgan and made the semi-finals of the T20 World cup 2021 as well recently.

The recent introduction of the Hundred tournament had earned a lot of success as well and it will be interesting to see if they manage to get their batting sorted soon. England’s openers Haseeb Hameed and Rory Burns have failed to produce better starts for England at the top and Root recently suggested reconstructing the structure in County cricket to reap success in the future.