Ben Stokes likely to miss IPL 2025 to prioritise national duty: Reports

England Test captain Ben Stokes is reportedly all set to skip the 2025 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in order to ‘prioritise’ international cricket in a massive year for England which will see them play the Champions Trophy, a five-Test series at home against India and an Ashes away in Australia.

Telegraph Cricket reports that Stokes is likely to ‘lead a string of key England players sitting out IPL 2025 ahead of a huge year for his Test team’. However, it remains to be seen if Stokes will refrain from registering for the mega auction altogether. 

Such a move will have massive implications. However, according to the new player regulations brought in by the IPL Governing Council, an individual who does not register for the mega auction will not be allowed to register for the next two mini-auctions.

“Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn't register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction,” is what the new rules say.

Players can’t also register, get picked in the auction and then pull out due to personal reasons. That will lead to a two-year ban from the competition. 

This rule, in many ways, was brought about due to the late withdrawals made across the past few years by English players, which became a pretty common occurrence. Last season, Jason Roy, Gus Atkinson, Mark Wood, David Willey and Harry Brook chose to skip the IPL despite getting picked in the auction.

“Any player who registers in the player auction and, after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons,” the rule says.

In the wake of the new rules, many England players, including Stokes, are hence expected to register for the mega auction even if they do not intend to play IPL 2025. This is to make themselves eligible to get picked for the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

“It is understood that some English players are set to enter the auction this year, but declaring themselves unavailable for the whole season in the hope that that makes them eligible to go under the hammer in 2026 or 2027,” the report from Telegraph Cricket further claimed.

According to the publication, Stokes is also expected to make himself available for selection for the 2025 Champions Trophy. Stokes has not officially stepped away from white-ball cricket, but he has not played any limited-overs international cricket since the ODI World Cup in India last year.

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