England must stop scrapping with street fighter Kohli

➤ Root calls for calm heads to avoid falling into a war of words ➤ Captain says team will learn from wrong approach at Lord’s

England are winning the battle against Virat Kohli the batsman but losing the fight against Virat Kohli the competitor, and will change their approach this week after having their fingers burnt at Lord’s.

England would gladly have taken a batting average of 20.66 for Kohli going into the third Test of the series, especially with their own captain, Joe Root, riding high with two centuries as he prepares to play on his home ground.

Kohli has been exposed outside off stump, reaching at wide balls on a fourth or fifth stump line, a run of misjudgments in contrast to his last tour to England in 2018.

Then, he averaged 75.25 against anything outside off stump from the seamers, with four dismissals. But, due to a technical change of opening up his stance to negate inswing, he has been dismissed three times nicking off to England, averaging just 10.66 to those wide balls.

Even though England have successfully probed this weakness and managed to keep Kohli quiet and dependent on team-mates for India’s runs, he is getting inside their heads and affecting their thinking at crucial moments with his aggressive approach. Kohli was picked up by the on-field microphones speaking in Hindi and saying to his players, “For 60 overs they should feel hell out there”, before they bowled out England inside two sessions for 120 to win the second Test at Lord’s.

He had already lit the fuse on the Saturday night by encouraging Jasprit Bumrah to pepper James Anderson, which led to confrontations as they walked off.

England were still rattled two days later, which probably cost them the Test as they tried to exact revenge when Bumrah was batting.

Kohli was often hanging around, waiting at the crease for new batsmen in the second innings, attempting to intimidate and crank up the pressure with a word or two.

He fired up his bowlers and was not prepared to take a backward step. It has left England with a decision to make on how to handle Kohli this week.

Do they give him the silent treatment, refuse to engage and bite on his provocations, or go back at him hard, given his own form?

To do that it has to be a unified effort, with all buying into it.

They have tried, with bowlers reminding Kohli it is “all about him” and provoking him while batting at Lord’s. Ollie Robinson, in only his third Test, engaged with Kohli shortly before his dismissal to Sam Curran. But now at 1-0 down, England need to change tack because getting into a fight with Kohli only makes him more punchy and England less focused.

However difficult, they are better off not getting sucked into Kohli’s world and seem set to try to ignore him at Headingley.

In the absence of Ben Stokes, England lack the menace to go with the words. They are ill-equipped to win a street fight. Anderson chunters when he is bowling, but obviously cannot give anything back as a batsman. Root is more of a cheeky chappie, smiling at slip and coming up with the odd quip.

Jos Buttler insists he is a lot harder than we think. Umpires stepped in on the final day at Lord’s, when he confronted Bumrah, and he was fined a couple of years ago for abusing Vernon Philander, but generally steers clear of trouble.

It is just not in the make-up of Moeen Ali or Jonny Bairstow to become involved with the opposition. The others are too inexperienced or unsure of their places to start picking fights with the world’s most famous cricketer.

Root has tried to be diplomatic, wary of getting sucked into a Kohli storm before the game, but admitted they had the wrong approach at Lord’s.

“We’ve got to make sure we play the game how we want to play it, and look after that the best we can and not get too distracted or drawn into anything that is not us,” he said.

“We have got to be genuine to ourselves, genuine to how we are as individuals and how we are collectively, and be as good as we can be in the way we go about things. Virat and his team will play the way they play, and I just want us to go out and be the best version of us. I think we have done some good learning off the back of the last game.”

Kohli will not change. He has an attack at his disposal that can back up words with actions. The intensity of Mohammad Siraj and pace of Bumrah is the difference between the teams, so he knows he can unsettle England two ways.

If he recalls Ravichandran Ashwin, who wound up Australia captain Tim Paine last year, it will give India another ultra-competitive bowler to throw at England.

The question is whether Kohli really needs to push the line?

He has a talented team, the better bowling attack and more experienced batsmen, even if they are struggling for runs. India are 1-0 up with everything in their favour.

It makes for great sporting theatre, which Test cricket thrives on, but India are good enough to beat England without it.