Ben Stokes wants his team-mates to walk the walk when it comes to delivering aggressive ‘do or die’ cricket in the T20 World Cup semi-final.
Stokes can barely hide his excitement at the thought of a last-four clash with India in Adelaide, and he has vowed to throw caution to the wind in an attempt to reach a third World Cup final in his career.
And he is invoking the spirit of 2019 to help inspire him and the team after their four game winning streak to the 50-over title was started against India at Edgbaston. “We’re in a position now that it’s do or die,” said Stokes. “What I don’t think anyone will do going into this game is take a backward step.
“We talk a lot about the way in which we want to play and how we want to play when it comes to the pressure moments, and what we’ll see here is us trying to deliver on what we talk about, not taking the cautious option. We’ve seen glimpses of what we’re able to do but we know as a team we’ve not really played to the levels that we would have liked to.
“The way we went out and played, that game against India in 2019 and Australia as well, just look at the mindset and mentality going into those games, which were do or die games.
“We didn't take a backward step so I think we can take a lot of confidence, knowing that if we go in with the similar mindsets to we had in those big games, then hopefully we'll do all right.”
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England could be without their pace spearhead Mark Wood for the semi-final as well as Dawid Malan. Both face fitness tests the day before after suffering with general stiffness and a groin injury respectively. Neither trained properly on Tuesday in the Adelaide sunshine.
Stokes’ desire to unleash the full force of his strokeplay might be tempered a little by the fact that they are unexpectedly playing on a used pitch that hosted a double header six days earlier.
England are clearly able to adapt to conditions as they have shown so far in a tournament that has required smart cricket rather than all out power, something that could yet see a repeat of the 2019 final with New Zealand, although an India v Pakistan final would be popular in some quarters too.
“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks with the way we’ve played and the weather,” he added. “But Thursday’s going to be a big day and I’m really excited.
“We’ve had a few up and down moments in the group stages but we can forget about those now and enjoy the challenge ahead of us. According to the India media we definitely will be underdogs but these games it’s all about who turns up on the day better.
“We know that if we play anywhere near as well as we know we can, we are a very hard team to beat and then hopefully it will be Melbourne on Sunday. I’m trying to think what the ICC would prefer.”
