Stokes Hits Out at Kohli for Complaining About Size of Edgbaston After WC Encounter

England all-rounder Ben Stokes has hit out at Virat Kohli for complaining about the size of the Edgbaston cricket ground after their World Cup encounter in 2019, which Team India lost by 31 runs.

Stokes talked about this incident, and a lot more in his book ‘Ben Stokes on Fire’, saying that he was surprised to hear Kohli ‘whinge’ about the dimensions of the Edgbaston. Stokes termed it the ‘worst complaint’ one could make as a captain.

“… it was weird to hear India captain Kohli whingeing about the size of the boundaries at the post-match presentation ceremony. I have never heard such a bizarre complaint after a match. It’s actually the worst complaint you could ever make,” Ben Stokes wrote in his book.

Going back to the match, this was a must-win game for the hosts, who were coming into the encounter on the back of to losses against Sri Lanka and Australia.

After opting to bat first, England put on a mammoth 337 with Jonny Bairstow smashing a solid 109. Stokes chipped in with a fiery 79 from 54 balls.

In reply, India started poorly and lost KL Rahul early in the innings. Rohit Sharma went on to score a ton but that didn’t prove enough.

Post this loss, Kohli said, “The toss was vital, especially looking at the boundaries that are this short. Bizarre that it just falls in place with the boundary limitations and with a flat pitch such as this. It’s crazy that things fall in place like that randomly. It’s the first time we are experiencing this,” Kohli had said.

“If batsmen are able to reverse sweep, sweep you for a six on a 59-meter boundary you can’t do much as a spinner. They had to be smarter with their lines as it was difficult to contain runs with one short boundary.”