Root and Kohli and second and third, respectively, in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen, and are showing similar signs of breaking multiple batting records in the years to come
Virat Kohli went past Joe Root for the most runs in 2016 across the three formats during his 147* on Saturday, and the latter had rich words of praise for the India Test captain.
“He is obviously very driven and very ambitious, you can see that in the way he approaches the game,” Root said after the day’s play here on Saturday.
Root and Kohli and second and third, respectively, in the ICC Test rankings for batsmen, and are showing similar signs of breaking multiple batting records in the years to come. However, their characters couldn’t be more contrasting. While the 25-year-old Englishman is more sober and goes about his business on the field without any fuss, the 28-year-old India Test skipper is synonymous to aggression, always taking on opponents and issues on the field.
Root said seeing that trait in Kohli keeps his competitive juices flowing. “He is very emotional and he wears his heart on his sleeve. It’s quite good to play against guys that express how they feel and try and make you feel uncomfortable. For me it gets me in a good place, it gets me going and you want to get in that competitive mode where you can perform at your best,” he said.
Root admitted that England might have misread the pitch and missed an extra spinner on it, choosing to pick pacer Jake Ball. “In hindsight, we would have liked to play and extra spinner,” he said.
Root pulled off a bit of a masterstroke when he was leading in the brief absence of Alastair Cook, deciding to bring himself on when Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel were stitching together a partnership. It paid off instantly, the part-time offfie removing the latter and then coming back in the next over to scalp Ravichandran Ashwin.
“The decision to bring myself on was sort of initiated by Cooky before he left the field. So I can’t take any credit for that. It was just nice to get a bit of a bowl and contribute as well. It always seems to work that way. The lads put some really hard yards in and worked extremely hard all day and you come and bowl some filthy, part-timers and sneak a couple of wickets,” he said.
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