England all-rounder Ben Stokes is set to join Rajasthan Royals after missing an initial couple of weeks of the ongoing Indian Premier League edition in order to be with his family in Christchurch.
On Saturday, Royals posted a picture of Stokes en route to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on their official Twitter handle.
Earlier, Stokes had posted images of him with his family on Instagram with the caption: ‘goodbyes never get easier’.
The 29-year-old will have to undergo six days of quarantine on arrival in the UAE as per the Covid-19 protocols for IPL 2020.
In August, Stokes had pulled out of the Pakistan Test series midway in order to be with his family in New Zealand after his father was diagnosed with cancer. After featuring in the first Test against Pakistan earlier this month, Stokes had left for New Zealand to be with his family.
Stokes’ arrival in the UAE will be a big boost for the Royals as it would add more strength to their batting unit, which is currently heavily dependent on Sanju Samson and Steve Smith.
The likes of Jos Buttler and Robin Uthappa have not been able to perform for the Royals so far. While Uthappa has scored just 16 runs in the three innings he has played for the Royals, Buttler has scored 25 runs in the two innings he has played so far in the tournament.
Stokes has so far played 34 IPL matches for the Royals across three seasons, in which he has scored 635 runs and scalped 26 wickets.
