Former England captain Nasser Hussain reckons Ben Stokes played a poor shot against India after they suffered another loss of 100 runs in the ongoing World Cup at Lucknow on Sunday. Stokes failed to get off the mark and tried to bail himself out of a trouble situation with a big shot against Mohammed Shami but could not make any connection with the ball.
The left-hander was continuously troubled by Shami as the pacer flirted with his outside edge on almost every ball he faced. Hussain acknowledged that Stokes has played some brilliant match-winning knocks for England in big matches across formats but he got it wrong against India when he tried to play a big shot.
England had just lost two quick wickets of Dawid Malan and Joe Root and Stokes’ wicket added more pressure. Hussain reckons the experienced batter should have shown more patience and maturity in his stroke making.
Nasser Hussain wrote for Daily Mail, “It is very rare Ben gets it wrong, and he has been the key man in so many difficult situations in different forms of cricket over the years. But I’m not sure he got it right this time and contributed to England again losing wickets in the powerplay.”
Hussain reckons England should have shown more gumption with the bat when the going was difficult against quality seam bowling in the first 10 overs. England found themselves in a mud at 39-4 after 9.1 overs after opening bursts from Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
“What England had to do was come through that tricky five to 10 over period at the start of their innings when the new ball was going to nip around, and then, things would have become easier for them.
“So, for me, old-fashioned as I am, that was the time when they needed to grind it out and survive that difficult spell you get in any form of the game.”
The former right-hander added England is not going to qualify for the semifinals of the ODI showpiece after losing five out of their six games.
”There may be a remote mathematical chance of England still getting to the last four but it’s not going to happen.
“They are out of this tournament and all they can do now is try to pull this around, beat Australia on Saturday and regain as much pride as possible.”
England will next take on arch-rivals Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Saturday.
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