The incident occurred in the 24th over of England’s innings, when Stokes was batting alongside Zak Crawley, with England three down with 80 on the board. Stokes, batting on six, gestured at R Ashwin, the bowler, to stop in his run-up, and pulled out of the delivery, seemingly bothered by the sightscreen.

He pulled out again off the fifth delivery of the over, the second time in a row, after which Virat Kohli was seen approaching Stokes from his fielding position at fly slip. Even as Stokes gestured with his hand for Ashwin to pause in his run-up, Kohli walked up to Stokes and was heard on stump mic, perhaps cheekily, saying ‘come on yaar, Ben’, possibly suggesting the batsman continue with the game.

Stokes was apparently having issues with the sightscreen, to which Kohli was heard saying ‘it’s too high, man’, suggesting that the sightscreen was high enough for the pink ball to be visible. It is to be noted that the colour of most seats in the stadium is orange, which is a similar shade to the colour of the ball used in the day/night Test.

The pink ball has been the subject of debate for years, with questions over its visibility during different phases of the day with the sunlight or artificial lights in the background. When asked about challenges of visibility in the pre-match press conference, Kohli had insisted that the sightscreen was big enough to cause any discomfort: “The sight screen is quite big here so as a batsman the focus may not go on the seats (orange in colour, similar to the pink ball),” he said. “But yes, as a fielding unit, we have discussed the issue. We as a team have always believed to make the best out of a situation and we will do it”.

You can watch the incident here:

https://twitter.com/ChloeAmandaB/status/1364529863055593476