'Never said India lost to England deliberately' - Ben Stokes lashes out at former Pakistan cricketer

India had a terrific run last year during the World Cup. The Virat Kohli-led side ended the group stages as the table toppers. However, the team had lost one match during the group stages and that was against the hosts, England. The Indian team lost that match by 31 runs. At the time, it was made out that India’s approach towards the chase wasn’t right and they didn’t try enough to score the runs.

Recently, there were reports that England all-rounder Ben Stokes had discussed the match in detail in his new book ‘On Fire: My Story of England’s Summer to Remember.’ In this book, Stokes wrote that the approach of MS Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit Sharma during the run chase was surprising to him.

However, this news was twisted and then tweeted by former Pakistan cricketer Sikander Bakht. He uploaded a tweet in which he wrote that Stokes had revealed that India lost the match deliberately to knock out Pakistan from the World Cup.

Ben Stokes hits out at the ex-Pakistan cricketer for his false claims

It all came down to a situation where a Twitter user posted a question asking Bakht if he can show some evidence that Stokes actually said that.

But this time, the England cricketer decided to take matters in his own hands to reply. In reply to this, Stokes clarified that he had never said it. He also said that his words were twisted in order to generate attention. His tweet read, “You won’t find it cause I have never said it… it’s called “twisting of words” or “clickbait.””

India was in a place during the World Cup that had they beaten England, Pakistan’s chances of qualification would have increased. In fact, as it stands out, had India beaten the hosts in that match, they would have failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

However, on that fateful day in Edgbaston, England was clearly the better of the two sides. Chasing a total of 338, India were going strong but quite slowly. Kohli got a brilliant half-century and his deputy Sharma notched up a hundred. Dhoni’s cameo at the end of 42 runs from 31 balls wasn’t enough.

Talking about that match, Stokes had written in his book the following things.

“Arguably, the way MS Dhoni played when he came in with 112 runs needed from 11 overs was even stranger. He appeared more intent on singles than sixes. Even with a dozen balls remaining, India could still have won. There was little or no intent from him (Dhoni) or his partner Kedar Jadhav. To me, while victory is still possible you always go for broke.”

“The way Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli played was mystifying. I know that we bowled brilliantly well during this period, but the way they went about their batting just seemed bizarre. They allowed their team to get so far behind the game. They showed no desire to put any pressure back onto our team, content instead to just drift along, a tactic that was clearly playing into our hands.”