India’s run chasing strategy during the match against England in the 2019 World Cup was questioned a lot by the fans. Now, England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who was a part of the English team in that contest, has revealed that he was shocked with India’s approach.
In fact, Stokes has termed Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s partnership as “mystifying” and saw “no intent” from former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the run chase. Stokes said all this in his new book ‘On Fire’.
Stokes mentioned his analysis of that match in his book. According to him, MS Dhoni, who came out to bat when India required 112 runs in 11 overs, and prioritised on taking singles rather than going for boundaries. Stokes said that India would have won that game easily had if Dhoni applied the different approach.
“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,” Stokes wrote in his soon-to-be-published book.
Stokes also dropped his thoughts on Rohit-Kohli’s partnership in that particular game. He opined that the duo took way too much time to build a partnership. During that match, Kohli and Rohit put together 138 runs but consumed 27 overs as well. Stokes said that they didn’t put any pressure on England and showed no kind of intent to win the contest.
“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,” Stokes further wrote.
