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Revenge as super Kohli puts Joe in his place
Joe Root instantly feared his ‘mic drop’ celebration might come back to haunt him after scoring the century that defeated India in the last one-day international — but he could not have dreamt it would be as quickly as this.
Virat Kohli certainly did not miss the opportunity to take his revenge for what India considered an arrogant act by the england captain, in the pivotal moment of the first day of this opening test and, quite possibly, the series.
the India captain, never one to forget a perceived slight, seized his moment when he ran Root out with a brilliant direct hit from midwicket as the england captain struggled to complete a second run that was never there.
Kohli, so often confrontational on the field, blew a kiss each in the direction of Root and the culpable Jonny Bairstow before shushing the captain, delivering a ‘mic drop’ of his own and then apparently saying ‘Mic drop, f*** off’. Whether that interests match referee Jeff Crowe remains to be seen but england will be far more upset about an act of complete self- destruction that already looks likely to cost them dear in this series.
What a waste this was of a superlative first- day position against the best test team in the world, and what a way for Root to again miss the opportunity to go on to the big three-figure score that his ability demands.
this time no blame can be attached to Root, who looked in fantastic touch as he moved to 80 while adding 104 with his fellow Yorkshireman Bairstow on Yorkshire Day, rescuing england from a wobble at 112 for three.
It was then that Bairstow, the quickest runner in the england side, sprinted back for a second after clipping Ravichandran Ashwin through the leg side in what was becoming a dominant stand.
to be fair to Bairstow, Root made no attempt to send his partner back but he was at least three metres behind and always destined to be beaten by a halfdecent throw, let alone the accurate bullet propelled by Kohli.
At least both batsmen missed Kohli’s flammable gesture as Bairstow sank to his haunches and hung his head in despair while Root looked back at his errant partner, chuntering and shaking his head as he went.
What england really needed then was Bairstow to make amends with a big century of his own in the manner of Geoff Boycott after running out local hero Derek Randall at trent Bridge in 1977. Not a bit of it. Instead Bairstow, who had been in excellent touch to reach 70, rapidly followed his captain back to the pavilion after aiming a loose attempted cut at Umesh Yadav and succeeding only in chopping on to his stumps.
the sloppiness that has seen england average 288 batting first in their past 10 tests was back again with knobs on, and new vice- captain Jos Buttler and Root’s former deputy, Ben Stokes, soon meekly followed.
Buttler was trapped plumb lbw by Ashwin and Stokes could not believe what he had done after he lobbed a delivery gently back to the off spinner, giving him the third of his four wickets.
From the riches of 216 for three and the possibility of a commanding score, england plummeted to 243 for seven and India were gifted a position of superiority they are unlikely to relinquish. Sam Curran and the contentiously recalled Adil Rashid did their best to hang around but both Rashid, lbw on review, and Stuart Broad, bamboozled by Ashwin, fell to leave england on a way-below-par 285 for nine at the close. It is not nearly enough.
the joke is very much on Root, who became the quickest englishman to reach 6,000 test runs, and a side who are trying to inject the formula that has made their white-ball team such an irresistible force but instead repeated the same old costly mistakes.
India may be ranked the best test team in the world but their lofty ranking has been built almost solely on home form and Kohli has made it his mission for India to cement their status by winning here and in Australia. this, on a curiously low-key start to such a big series with more than 5,000 empty seats at england’s edgbaston fortress, was a terrific start to that quest, with batting conditions likely to be at their best over the next two days.
India had sprung a surprise by picking only one spinner in Ashwin and favouring an additional seamer in Mohammed Shami. It looked a mistake when the off spinner spun a beauty past the defences of Alastair Cook.
But Shami more than justified his selection when he nipped out Keaton Jennings, unlucky to be bowled off his legs, and Dawid Malan, stuck on his crease when adjudged marginally lbw, in a potent two-over spell.
Jennings looked good for his 42 and will come again but the pressure is building on Malan, who was surprisingly preferred to an additional spinning all-rounder in Moeen Ali. the Middlesex man
may need second-innings runs to avoid being dropped for Lord’s.
Yet Root and Bairstow had gone such a long way to repairing the damage until, at a time when Yorkshire are at war over the selection of Rashid, there was another costly communications breakdown between two men of the white rose.
Root called his Headingley ‘mic drop’ — the preferred method of celebrating a moment of total superiority of rappers and comedians — ‘ the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done’. But he will be far more embarrassed at England’s latest collapse, particularly if Kohli makes the big century that his English counterpart looked destined to reach. And England could pay a very high cost for that profligacy.