'He’s earned the right to...' - Ben Stokes all praise for Virat Kohli ahead of India-ENG T20 WC semi-final
Ben Stokes all praise for Virat Kohli ahead of India-England T20 WC SF
The stage is set for the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals. While Pakistan will lock horns with New Zealand in the first semi-final, at the SCG, Sydney on Wednesday (November 09), India will take on England in the second semi-final on Thursday (November 10) at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide. India and the Three Lions are set to lock horns for the first time in the Men's T20 WC since the 2012 edition and it is expected to go down to the wire.
Some big-ticket players will rub shoulders against each other such as Rohit Sharma, Jos Buttler, Virat Kohli, Ben Stokes, Hardik Pandya, Liam Livingstone, etc. Prior to the highly-awaited face-off, English all-rounder Stokes was all praise for in-form Kohli. The 31-year-old Stokes stated that he failed to understand why people had started to write off a player of Kohli's calibre during his struggle period, prior to the Asia Cup 2022 edition, and believes that it is improbable to do what Kohli has done with the bat across formats for years.
"Look at that form. How unbelievable it is. As you know, he had a not-so-loud couple of months and, for some reason, players like that will get written off. I’ve got no idea why. I think he’s earned the right to never be written off. You don’t produce the number and produce the innings that he does over all three formats," Stokes told reporters in Adelaide ahead of England's semi-final against Rohit-led Men in Blue.
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“We as players and those who have played against him a lot, you never take anything he’s done in the game before into the game he’s got there. So just lay off a bit maybe," Stokes added.
Stokes also lauded another in-form batter from the Indian camp. Speaking about Suryakumar Yadav, he said, "Suryakumar obviously came in and set the world alight. He’s a fantastic player and plays some shots where you sort of are scratching your head sometimes."
Kohli is currently the leading run-getter in the T20 WC, with 245 runs in five games including three half-centuries under his belt. Meanwhile, SKY follows suit with 225 runs with equal number of fifties. India will hope for the star duo to come out all guns blazing versus the 2010 winners on Thursday evening.