Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq on Saturday accused Team India for deliberately losing to England in the World Cup 2019 game against England to deny Pakistan of proceding to the semifinal stage. Razzaq's comment came despite Ben Stokes' clarification on the statement he made in his recently-published book 'On Fire'.
Stokes in his book talked about the lack of intent for Indian batters, especially from former skipper MS Dhoni, during their World Cup 2019 game in the group stage. In the game, India were defeated by 31 runs after failing to chase 337 at Birmingham.
Commenting on the excerpt, Razzaq, in an interview with a local TV channel, said that India had conspired to keep Pakistan out of the World Cup semifinals, while criticising Dhoni batting in the game.
“There is no doubt in this. I had told this at that time as well. In fact, everyone else opined the same. For a person who can hit fours and sixes at will, he was blocking everything...Hence, one tends to know,” Razzaq said.
Earlier, another former Pakistan cricketer, Sikander Bhakt had claimed the same on Twitter on Thursday while sharing his old video. He captioned the video as, "Ben Stokes writes in his book that India lost to England deliberately to remove Pakistan from world Cup 19 and we predicted it Pakistan India relationship," while tagging Pakistan Cricket Board in his tweet.
Stokes was asked regarding the same by a Twitter user asked him on where to find that "deliberate" comment in his book and he responded saying, "You won’t find it cause I have never said it... it’s called "twisting of words" or "click bait."
Talking about India's run chase in that game in his book, Stokes referred to Kohli-Rohit partnership as "mystifying" and saw no intent from Dhoni in the innings. The all-rounder also talked about the bizarre complaint made by Kohli regarding the shorter Edgbaston boundaries after the defeat against England.
