Ben Stokes clears air on his verbal spat with Virat Kohli on Day 1 of Ahmedabad Test

Star England all-rounder Ben Stokes has clarified that his on-field spat with Indian skipper Virat Kohli is like two competitors locking horns with neither of them willing to back down. It so happened that both Stokes and Kohli were involved in a heated exchange on Day 1 of the ongoing fourth and final Test at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

'Why wouldn’t we be competitive?': Ben Stokes

”I feel nowadays in cricket, it’s a massive talking point when you see two opponents having a go at each other. People see it and think it’s all wrong. But look at it from a different way, there are two-three guys who care about what we are doing. Having played against each other, why wouldn’t we be competitive?", said Stokes in a video released by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

"We are not going to back down to anyone whoever it be. It will be nice to see us as two competitors going toe-to-toe and not one backing down,” the middle-order batsman added.

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Kohli & Stokes involved in a verbal spat

In the 13th over of the England innings, Indian pacer Mohammad Siraj bowled a bouncer to Ben Stokes and stared at the batsman. In response, Stokes uttered a few words but Siraj refrained from responding. In came skipper Virat Kohli, who began his own duel with the English all-rounder, and the two were seen engaging in a fiery exchange of words. On-field umpires Nitin Menon and Virender Sharma intervened the two before letting the situation escalate further.

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Ben Stokes top-scores for England in the first innings

The New Zealand-born cricketer was the lone half-centurion for England in their first innings. His knock came to an end after he was trapped plumb in front of the wicket by Washington Sundar in the 47th over. 

Stokes top-scored for the visitors with 55 while middle-order batsman Dan Lawrence chipped in with 43. Meanwhile, none of the other batsmen could offer any resistance on a perfect batting track as they missed a great opportunity to keep the scoreboard ticking despite the coin landing in Test skipper Joe Root's favour on Thursday morning. Most of the English batsmen even failed to breach double-figures as they were eventually bundled out for 205 in their first innings. 

In reply, India have lost the wicket of opener Shubman Gill for a duck after he was caught plumb in front of the wicket by veteran pacer James Anderson in the very first over. Gill's opening partner Rohit Sharma (8*), and, number three Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara (15*) ensured that there were no further hiccups as the hosts finished Day 1 at 24/1. They still have a first-innings deficit of 181 runs.

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