England captain Ben Stokes commits to playing in Test match against Ireland

Stokes opted out of the IPL auction in 2022 as he prioritised getting to grips with his leadership role, but put himself back under the hammer in December and landed a bumper £1.63million deal with Chennai Super Kings.

The group stages of the world’s biggest T20 tournament run all the way to May 28, with the eliminator match and final to follow, while England take on Ireland at Lord’s from June 1 in their final outing before the eagerly-awaited series against Australia.

The possibility for a clash in Stokes’ calendar is apparent but he has made it clear that he will be donning his England whites rather than the yellow shirt of CSK when the time comes.

He is understood to have already agreed a departure date with the franchise and will be back in time to take a full part in preparations ahead of the first international of the season.

Asked if he would be on duty at the home of cricket if there was a spot for him in the IPL final, he left no room for doubt.

“Yes, I’ll play,” he said. “I’ll be making sure that I give myself enough time to get back and play that game.”

The picture is less clear when it comes to other players, though. The likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Harry Brook all have IPL contracts, as well as being lined up for key roles as England attempt to win back the urn for the first time since 2015.

Director of cricket Rob Key may ultimately be the one to determine how and when key players return to red-ball cricket – be it in the County Championship or straight to Lord’s – but Stokes suggested case-by-case decisions may be made.

With individual fitness concerns and a tightly-packed schedule of six Tests in just over seven weeks, the only thing for sure at this stage is where Stokes’ focus is trained.

“I think it’s a little bit too far ahead to say (for others), but one thing I’ve got to look at is we’ve got the Ashes after the Ireland Test, so I’ll probably get round the individuals and ask them what they want to be ready for the Ashes,” he said.

“Those five games are obviously the big one of the summer and you’ve got to think about what lads want, but you also have to think about if something was to happen in that game and we lose someone for the Ashes.

“It’s just one of those where you have to weigh up the options of what the individual person actually wants out of that week versus do we really need to play that one? Because I’m obviously right in saying that series is bigger than that game against Ireland.”