Agree with you, although England was in the favorite team list to qualify for the semifinals easily. But now it looks like it is going to be difficult for them. India, NZ and SA are definitely favourite for the semifinals journey now. I didn't expect that England will lose today's match. A great performance from the Afghanistan team. The presence of Stokes wouldn't make much difference in today's match. The spinners have done well for both teams.
Yeah, definitely if stokes were included in their squad then may be result will be difficult because he is calm minded and never take pressure during difficult situation and can Handel situation, anyway Afghanistan makes a history by defeating first ever win against England in ODI world cup, I can't believe that they can brutally defeat such a strong side like England which was predicted by dozen of journalists as a strong contender of semifinals. All credit of this victory goes to spin trio of Afghanistan who took important wickets at right time and defend a decent target and also credit goes to gurbaz for spectacular inning
I really missed Stokes and Moeen Ali in today's match. If these two players were present in this match, the result of the match might have been different. Stokes is an excellent batsman. And I have seen many times that Stokes is capable of batting responsibly under pressure. And he is also capable of batting at a smart strike rate. On the other hand since today's pitch was spin-friendly, I don't know why Moeen Ali was not kept in the squad. Moeen Ali is used to playing on Indian pitches. He performs regularly in IPL. So it was necessary to keep Moeen Ali in the squad on such a pitch. Hopefully we will see Stokes and Moeen Ali in the squad in the next match.
England's next match is against South Africa. South Africa is a very tough opponent. South African batsmen are in very good form. So it will be very difficult for England to win this match.