Want Ben Stokes to find Steve Smith's weakness during IPL 2017: Joe Root

England's Test cricket team skipper Joe Root asked all-rounder Ben Stokes, who will play under the captaincy of Steve Smith in the IPL franchise Rising Pune Supergiants, to find the weakness of his new skipper

Joe Root

London: England's Test cricket team skipper Joe Root on Thursday asked all-rounder Ben Stokes, who will play under the captaincy of Steve Smith in the IPL franchise Rising Pune Supergiants, to find the weakness of his new skipper so that they can beat Australia in the Ashes series later in the year.

Stokes, who was bought by Pune for a whopping Rs 14.50 crore during last month's auction, will be making his IPL debut this year.

"Smith has become one of the best players in the world. In fact, he is ranked as the best player in the world and is just racking up the runs for fun," Root was quoted as saying by Dailystar.co.uk.

"So the one thing Stokesy can do for us is make sure he finds a little weakness in Smith's armoury for us when we go down to Australia, if he can," he added.

Australia will host England in the Ashes series starting from November 23.

Root also said that this cash-rich league will help English cricketers to improve their game.

"It is great to see a number of English guys getting that exposure to fantastic ex-players and coaches as well as some of the best players in the world," Root said.

"Hopefully, they come back better for it and I'm sure they'll gain confidence from being out there and playing in front of some big crowds," he added.

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