Indian captain Virat Kohli is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve while on the field. As a result, he lives the game very deeply and shouts passionately at every wicket and remonstrates against every decision that doesn’t go the team’s way.
On Day 1 of the Headingley Test, Ishant Sharma was guilty of bowling two no-balls and a wide delivery following which Kohli had a long chat with the umpires. Former England cricketer David Lloyd wasn’t impressed by his actions and writing in his column for The Daily Mail, he expressed dissatisfaction.
“Virat Kohli is one of the great players, but I find it so disappointing that he constantly questions umpires’ decisions. Ishant Sharma overstepped twice in his first over, then bowled an off-side wide, which was correctly called by Alex Wharf. From first slip, Kohli was clearly unhappy, and made his feelings known.
“At the end of the over, he took it up again. It’s just a wide! The umpires should have the power to penalize what in my book is dissent.”
Lloyd further added that at the toss, the decision to bat first looked pretty straightforward. However, the ball was swinging well from the start and bowlers like Anderson made the most of it. India might have regretted their decision to open the batting once the top-order and middle-order got dismantled.
“It looked straightforward: win the toss, have a bat. The pitch is a belter, and all India’s problems have been in the air. The ball swung from the start, and Anderson wasn’t going to miss that opportunity. When it got to 50-odd for five, I wonder if India’s bowlers started to think that they should have been out there with the ball in their hands instead of England. But 78 all out? It was hard to fathom.”
Virat Kohli’s torrid run with the bat continued here as well and he got out while trying to play a loose drive outside off stump once again. Kohli is yet to find his footing here in England and former Indian spinner Maninder Singh asked him to walk the talk.
In the virtual press conference before the Headingley Test, the 32-year-old told that it was necessary to ‘keep the ego in the pocket’ while batting in England and Maninder Singh reminded him of the same.
“Before the Test match, Virat Kohli had said that in these English conditions you’ve got to keep your ego in your pocket. And I think that is absolutely right. If he tries to dominate, like Virat Kohli usually does, these are not the pitches where he can bat like that. He needs to spend some time there, like he did on the previous tour where he scored almost 600 runs. Once you know the pace and know how much the ball is seaming around, they you can carry on playing your shots.”
