Ben Stokes responds to Harsha Bhogle's criticism of England over Deepti Sharma's run-out

England Test captain Ben Stokes responded to popular commentator Harsha Bhogle after he shared a strong-worded Twitter thread criticising the English fans and media for spreading "vitriol" towards Deepti Sharma after her run-out of England batter Charlotte Dean at Lord's.

Deepti had run Dean at the non-striker's end in the recently-concluded third ODI between India and England to seal a 3-0 victory for the visitors in London. However,the dismissal has leftthe cricketing world divided and the debate surrounding the incident is failing to die down.

On Friday, Bhogle took to Twitter to put out a long thread slamming the English media for their criticism of Deepti over the run-out and said England criticising a batter being run-out at the non-striker's end for backing up too far can be a 'culture thing'.

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“I remain disturbed by the vitriol directed towards Deepti. She played by the laws of the game and criticism of what she did must stop,” Bhogle wrote as part of his long thread.

Responding to his thread, Stokes refused it was a 'cultural thing' and claimed he still gets criticised by Indian fans for the way England won the 2019 ODI World Cup final. "Harsha ... bringing culture into peoples opinion over a Mankad?" Stokes wrote in one of his tweets.

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"Harsha .. 2019 WC final was over 2 years ago, I still till this day revive (receive) countless messages calling me all sorts from Indian fans, does this disturb you?" - he wrotein another tweet.

"Is this a culture thing?? ....absolutely not, I receive messages regarding the overthrows from people all over world,as people all over the world have made comment's on the Mankad dismissal, not just people who are English," he added in another tweet responding to Bhogle.

Stokes was the hero for England in the 2019 World Cup final where he played a match-winning knock, but was helped by some luck as an overthrow deflected off his bat and went for four runs, eventually helping the hosts draw the final. England went on to win the trophy after winning the Super Over on boundary count. Stokes has since been on the receiving end of criticism for his dive which had seen the overthrow cross the boundary rope in the final.

Talking about the incident, Bhogle responded to the England all-rounder saying - “Well, you were not at fault on that one so with you there. On the reaction in England to the non-striker backing up, I think it is what you are told when you learn the game and so, part of culture. Very happy to chat about it one day if you have a moment.”

Also Read:'She was taking undue advantage' - Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Charlie Dean run-out

The ICC had recently confirmed running out a batter on the non-striker's end which was loosely referred to as 'Mankading' will be moved from the 'unfair section' in the ICC rule books. The dismissal will now be deemed a normal run-out and can be utilised by a bowlerif the non-strikeristaking undue advantage by backing up too far.