Virat Kohli earned the right never to be written off: Ben Stokes

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Virat Kohli’s class, Surya Kumar Yadav’s shots, Rohit Sharma’s form… Ben Stokes warned England ahead of the semi-final battle against India on Thursday.  #T20WorldCup

Transcript

00:00Surya Kumar has obviously, you know, came in and set the world alight.

00:03He's a fantastic player and plays some shots where you're just sort of scratching your

00:07head sometimes.

00:08He's earned the right to never be written off, you know, you don't produce the numbers

00:13and produce the innings that he does over all three formats, likes a row hit and stuff

00:17like that, you know, they're world-class players.

00:30But, you know, it's about Thursday, hopefully we can try and shut him down and not allow

00:58him to get on one of his rampages.

01:00Rohit Sharma hasn't looked at his absolute best in this tournament so far, but the experts

01:05are saying that maybe just two big games left.

01:09Is England thinking that way?

01:10Well, you'd never look too much into, you know, what the, you know, the great players

01:15of your era have, you know, what baggage they're taking in, you know, the likes of Rohit and

01:21stuff like that, you know, they're world-class players and you can't take anything how they've

01:26performed in the previous games into these big games because, yeah, we've seen him do

01:31it many a time.

01:32He's one of the best to play the game, especially in this format, so, yeah, we won't be taking

01:37him lightly at all.

01:38Can you talk a little bit about Virat Kohli because you've spoken about mental well-being

01:41in the past, what he's gone through in the last three years and what he's delivered here

01:44in the World Cup?

01:45Yeah, I think Virat, he could have four unbelievable years like he had and then have a, you know,

01:49not so loud couple of months and then for some reason players like that will get written

01:54off.

01:55I've got no idea why.

01:56He's earned the right to never be written off.

01:59You know, you don't produce the numbers and produce the innings that he does over all

02:03three formats and, you know, it's fine, you know, like we as players and people who play

02:09against him a lot, you never take, you know, anything he's done in the game before into

02:14the game that he's got here.

02:15Yeah.

02:16So, yeah, I think just lay off a bit maybe.

02:17Ben, with the kind of form Team India is in, in an important semi-final match, do you think

02:18it will be tough opening the week because they topped the table?

02:27I think whoever you face in a, you know, semi-final of the World Cup is always going to be tough

02:31because, you know, both groups were very tough to get through, you know, finishing top, top

02:36two of either group was always going to be a challenge.

02:39But Thursdays, you know, this is the crunch time in tournaments, you know, Thursday's

02:42all about which team turns up and can perform best.

02:45How confident are you that you're going to spoil that final?

02:49The great news for you guys in the India-Pakistan final, look, I don't know, it's, you know,

02:55we're just here to hopefully win on Thursday.

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