The English all rounder, Ben Stokes said that he is preparing for the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League which was postponed to 15th April 2020 from its original date of 29th March 2020.
Stokes, who was signed by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and is amongst the 13 players from England who are set to play in IPL 2020. Ben stokes say that he knows there are chances that IPL may not take place this year, but he is remaining optimistic and continues to prepare himself for the tournament.
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Since the 25th of March Indian has entered lockdown which is scheduled to last for 21 day to contain the risk of spread of the novel Coronavirus, however, Stokes was quoted by an international news agency as saying, “At the moment my next competitive cricket is going to be in the IPL,”.
“That hasn’t changed yet so I have to think I will be playing on April 20”.
Just last week, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that the English County season may not start until the end of May and that’s a time after being optimistic. Even the England tour of South Africa has been postponed owing to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The IPL Board is yet to take any decision on the tournament, Stokes is keeping himself in good shape to play remaining optimistic that he could be asked to come to India to play in the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League.
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He said, “I have to get my head around that I am playing even though in the back of my mind I know I am probably not,” and added, “I have to build up and get myself physically in a position that if it does happen I am good to go”.
Ben stokes said that taking three weeks off before a crucial tournament and expecting that his body will be ready for his match on the 20th is preposterous, saying, “I cannot take three weeks off and expect the body to be ready for April 20 because it doesn’t work like that. It might happen and if it does I don’t want to be behind”.
“There will be a lot of advice given to us and if it was an option to go we will have to take the sensible one.”
When the two-Test Sri Lanka tour of England was cancelled, the English players were shocked said Stokes, however, he added that he is aware of the situations and said it was the right thing the Board did given the circumstances.
Stokes said, “Everyone was shell-shocked for half an hour in the changing room. It was such a weird feeling because we had been there for 10-12 days. We were building up to the first Test and then we were going home,”.
“But when you put everything together in terms of where the world was with the coronavirus, and what was being said on tour, it was the wrong place to be at that time and everyone’s health is more important than anything else in the world”.
