IPL 2021 Auction: ‘Ben Stokes is crucial, would use him as batsman and not much with the ball,’ opines Kumar Sangakkara

Rajasthan Royals (RR) Director Kumar Sangakkara talked about the overall RR squad after the 2021 VIVO IPL Auction. Despite making high-priced new recruitments, he spoke at length about their retained all-rounder Ben Stokes.

With RR making a hot bid for Chris Morris (16.25 crores) and Shivam Dube (4.4 crores),  Sangakkara wants Dube to focus more on batting with their retained all-rounder Ben Stokes.

‘We don’t want to burn Stokes too much with the ball,’ reckons Sangakkara

“I think for us the focus on Dube is for his batting and if there is an opportunity for him to bowl it will be very rare or very few overs. Stokes is off course capable with the ball but his role at the top of the order is extremely crucial and his ability with the bat,” said Sangakkara while replying to a query from ANI.

“In terms of his overs, we don’t want to burn him (Stokes) too much with the ball and use him tactically. In areas where he can make a difference for us. So in terms of Stokes coming in and bowling, we have no doubt that he can deliver but we don’t want him to burn him all the time,” he added.

RR director said that Chris Morris and Jofra Archer would work in close liaison with each other to put forth the show with the ball. 

“Morris has a very specific role for us to play in supporting Archer. I think it gives us a lot more flexibility in terms of how we use Archer. Morris’ numbers when he is fit and strong has been best in all IPLs,” said Sangakkara.

“Especially at the deaths his numbers are probably number one and in terms of the game impact, he is very much in the top bracket. His ability in that sense is very crucial for us,” he added.

Kumar Sangakkara was connected virtually with RR on Thursday when the IPL player auction was taking in Chennai.

Rajasthan Royals squad: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh

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