Published 20:06 IST, February 24th 2021
Virat Kohli has a gala time during practice, imitates Kallis & Smith's cricketing actions
Indian skipper Virat Kohli had a gala time as he imitated Jacques Kallis & Steve Smith's cricketing styles ahead of the ongoing 3rd Test against England
It seems that Indian skipper Virat Kohli was in a jovial mood ahead of the ongoing third Test match between India and England that is being played under lights at the newly-renovated Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. While he will be expected to play an impactful knock with the bat, Virat decided to test his funny side supposedly as a stress-buster ahead of the pink-ball Test match as he ended up mimicking two of the finest players in history of world cricket.
Virat Kohli imitates Kallis & Smith
This happened during the practice session. First, Kohli bowled like Kallis who used to rub the ball on his thighs before his run-up during his playing days and almost executed the Proteas all-rounder's medium-pace bowling to perfection. Later, while the batting megastar was batting in the nets, he defended a ball after which he screamed in an animated manner. He had made fun of his Australian batting counterpart Steve Smith as he usually follows this tactic after defending the ball.
The video of Virat Kohli imitating Kallis and Steve Smith's cricketing actions was posted on social media as well. Take a look.
England bundled out for just 112 in their first innings
Coming back to the ongoing third Test match, the English batsmen never got going despite the coin landing in skipper Joe Root's favor as they ended up losing wickets at regular intervals with only opener Zak Crawley managing to show some resistance while he ran out of partners at the other end.
Crawley scored a vital half-century but failed to carry on after he was trapped plumb in front of the wicket off left-arm spinner Axar Patel for a fighting 53. The rest of the batting painted a sorry picture as none of the batsmen from either the top or middle-order including captain Root could even manage to score 20 runs as England were bundled out for 112 runs in the 49th over.
Axar Patel, who registered his second straight fifer in this Test series and a maiden six-wicket haul was the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of 6/38 from his 21.4 overs at an economy rate of 1.75.
India in reply are 9/0 in their first innings. Meanwhile, 'Captain Fearless' will be hoping to make his bat do the talking and finally breach the three-figure mark. Kohli's last international century had come way back in November 2019 against Bangladesh at the iconic Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Coincidentally, even that Test match was contested under lights as well.
Updated 20:06 IST, February 24th 2021