In a series of tweets, Ben Stokes has hit back at Harsha Bhogle for his comments over Deepti Sharma’s run out of Charlie Dean, questioning the commentator for “bringing culture” into people’s views of running out the non-striker.

On Friday, Bhogle hit out at English cricketing circles for the criticism directed at Deepti Sharma in the aftermath of the Dean run out during the third ODI between England and India, attacking “reasonable people” for their “colonial way of thinking”. Several current cricketers – including Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Ellyse Perry Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler – have said that they would not themselves run out the non-striker. In a strongly-worded thread on Twitter, Bhogle asked those pointing fingers at Deepti to wake up from their “centuries-old colonial slumber”.

Stokes quote-tweeted parts of Bhogle’s thread, starting with the section that called criticism from the English a “cultural thing”. Stokes tweet read: “Harsha … bringing culture into peoples [sic] opinion over a Mankad?”

He went on to quote-tweet other parts of Bhogle’s thread, including one where the broadcaster said that he was “disturbed by the vitriol directed towards Deepti.” Stokes referenced the 2019 World Cup final – specifically the moment where the ball ricocheted off his bat to the boundary – to state that he still gets messages from India fans over the incident.

“Harsha .. 2019 WC final was over 2 years ago,” Stokes tweeted, “I still till this day revive [sic] countless messages calling me all sorts from Indian fans, does this disturb you?”

Stokes continued: “Is this a culture thing?? ….absolutely not, I receive messages regarding the overthrows from people all over world, as people all over the world have made comment’s on the Mankad dismissal, not just people who are English”.

Bhogle then entered the conversation, responding to Stokes’ comment on the overthrow, tweeting: “Well, you were not at fault on that one so with you there. On the reaction in England to the non-striker backing up, I think it is what you are told when you learn the game and so, part of culture. Very happy to chat about it one day if you have a moment. Cheers”.

Stokes then replied, citing the overall reaction to the overthrows incident, stating that England isn’t the only cricket-playing nation “who have spoken about the ruling” of the umpire.

“What about the rest of the worlds reaction to this particular incident? England isn’t the only cricket playing nation who have spoken about the ruling .”

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