Chennai Super Kings have reached their 10th final of the Indian Premier League, as they will play in the final of the 16th edition. MS Dhoni and his men will face the defending champion Gujarat Titans on Sunday, May 28 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahemdabad.
Chennai is the only team to have appeared in 10 IPL finals in the 14 seasons they have played. However, the Yellow Army will be without their most expensive player, Ben Stokes. The English all-rounders returned home after the last group game.
CSK broke their all-time record for the English Test captain and invested a whopping INR 16.25 crore to acquire him. However, it didn’t pay off well for the four-time champions. As the all-rounder couldn’t make an impact this season. He only played in two games.
Stokes played two games and only scored 7 and 8 in two innings. On the other hand, he bowled one over and conceded 14 runs. He has missed a total of 12 group games due to injury and fitness.
As a result, the franchise has imposed a 20 percent cut in pay for the veteran all-rounder this season. Notably, there is a provision in the contract of every player that states that if a cricketer is not featured in the playing XI, then the franchise can cut off 20 percent of his salary.
As per this clause, the English test captain will suffer a pay cut of INR 23.20 lakh per match, which will come to around INR 2.78 crore for the ongoing season. Meanwhile, CSK will look to win their fifth IPL title and equal MI’s glory. On the other hand, GT will look to retain their title and win their second consecutive championship.