England’s one-day captain Eoin Morgan has heaped praise on Ben Stokes, after his impressive IPL performance last year “broke down barriers” for his fellow England teammates, Sky Sports report.

All-rounder Stokes was named as the Most Valuable Player in the tournament last year, with 12 English internationals now taking part in the biggest club tournament in the world during the current campaign.

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England internationals Jos Buttler, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Tom Curran, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Mark Wood, David Willey, Chris Jordan and Liam Plunkett have all been chosen by various franchises to take part in the competition.

Stokes was bought for £1.7million last year and smashed 316 runs for Rising Pune Supergiant, including a magnificent century, taking 12 important wickets along the way.

Talking to Sky, Morgan was full of praise for the Durham all-rounder.

One of the big things that worked in our favour last year was Stokes going for a significant amount of money and proving he was worth that and more. It broke down barriers. If anyone in Indian cricket had doubts about [English players] because of previous performances then last year would certainly have had a knock-on effect.

Morgan surprisingly went unsold when the IPL auction took place in January, with the England captain having previous experience with Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad over the last three years.