Virat Kohli, Steve Smith Will Continue To "Weave Their Magic" At World Cup, Says Ben Stokes

Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, considered the best batsmen in the world, will look to make it count at the biggest stage as the World Cup 2019 gets underway on May 30 in England and Wales. While Virat Kohli will look to continue dominating, Steve Smith will want to show the world what it missed out on for the last 12 months as he served a ban for ball-tampering. England all-rounder Ben Stokes is of the view that both Kohli and Smith are best in the business and they will look to "weave their magic" in the pursuit of the ultimate glory.

"They are both phenomenal players and have played quite a bit against both of them. You watch them play and they make the game look a lot more easier than others do. So, I am a massive fan of both the players. They have both got their own styles and they are both different in the way they play, but they are both very very effective. You obviously play against guys to win, but at the end of the day you got to look at it from an angle that I love cricket and I love watching both Virat and Steve go about doing their jobs so consistently," Ben Stokes told IANS.

Stokes also said that he cannot wait for the showpiece event to get started on May 30 after demolishing Pakistan 4-0 in the just concluded five-match ODI series.

"I think we have earned the right to be favourites with the cricket that we have played in the last three or four years. Being world no.1 you will always come into the tournament as favourites. If India or Australia were the no.1 ranked team, they would come into the tournament as favourites. But we cannot take the no.1 tag into the tournament if we want to win it because as you saw during the Champions Trophy (2017) that we were playing great cricket and then we got onto a wicket against Pakistan which wasn't suited to our style and suited them more. But we have learnt from that and we are more capable to adapt to situations now than we were back then. We are a much better team now because we are able to read situations better," Stokes said.

Tournament hosts and favourites England, bidding to win the trophy for the first time, will open the quadrennial event when they face South Africa at The Oval in south London on May 30.

(With IANS Inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team England Cricket Team Virat Kohli Steven Smith Ben Stokes World Cup 2019 Cricket