Published 18:55 IST, March 4th 2021
Siraj reveals Kohli intervened as Stokes abused the pacer; netizens laud Indian skipper
Skipper Virat Kohli and ace all-rounder Ben Stokes engaged in a verbal duet during first innings as England began batting after winning the toss at Ahmedabad
As India and England locked horns in the final Test of the series on Thursday, the match witnessed fierce action on day 1 of the play itself. Skipper Virat Kohli and ace all-rounder Ben Stokes engaged in a verbal duet during the first innings as England began batting after winning the toss at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Kohli and Stokes were seen exchanging verbal blows until umpire Nitin Menon intervened and asked the players to back off.
Shedding light on the incident after the game, Mohammed Siraj revealed the reason why Virat Kohli and Ben Stokes were caught in a war of words. Siraj, who starred with the ball on day 1, said that the English all-rounder had been swearing at him which is why the Indian skipper to intervene.
"He was swearing at me, so Virat intervened and handled that well. We plan to peacefully bat for a couple of days so that I can rest up for a couple of days in the dressing room," Siraj said after the play ended on day 1.
Lauding Virat Kohli for backing his players, netizens jumped to heap praise on the Indian skipper. Several users also recollected when Kohli had come out to support Rishabh Pant when India and England locked horns in 2018. Here's how netizens reacted:
Speaking of his performance of day 1, Siraj said, "When I started bowling from the Reliance end, there was a little extra bounce and good movement from that end after I switched. When I played in Australia or when I play here, I will put my effort every ball otherwise it'll affect the team, and it'll release the pressure. I just want to bowl well every ball." The Hyderabadi speedster bagged two key wickets of skipper Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow as England were bundled out for just 205.
England suffer a batting collapse yet again
Even though Root had called it right at the toss, his batsmen including himself could not capitalise on their chances as they ended up losing wickets at regular intervals. Apart from star all-rounder Ben Stokes (55), and, Dan Lawrence (46), none of the other batsmen could make much of an impact on what seemed to be a good batting surface as most of them failed to breach the three-figure mark and were eventually bundled out for 205 in the 76th over.
The Indian spinners did much of the damage with Ashwin, Patel, and, Washington Sundar sharing eight wickets apiece. Axar Patel was once again the pick of the bowlers for the hosts with figures of 4/68 from his 26 overs while 'Ash' finished with 3/47 from his 19.5 overs. In reply, India have lost the wicket of opener Shubman Gill for a duck after he was caught plumb in front of the wicket by veteran pacer James Anderson in the very first over as the scorecard reads 4/1.
Updated 18:55 IST, March 4th 2021