On a day when tension flared between the two sides at Lord’s, Virat Kohli attempted to take a dig at Jos Buttler‘s Test credentials, but ended up dropping his catch off the very next over.
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Earlier in the day, Buttler was in the midst of an animated exchange with Jasprit Bumrah during a gutsy ninth-wicket stand for India. Later, he arrived at the crease with England fighting to save the Test, having lost their top four for 67.
Since his 152 at Southampton against Pakistan last August, Buttler has crossed fifty just once in eight Test innings. In five innings against India this year, Buttler hasn’t crossed 30 once.
At the end of the 26th over, with Buttler on a nine-ball 2, Kohli crossed the batsman, passing comment on the way. “Don’t worry about it, this is not white-ball cricket.”
The very next over, Buttler played at a wide delivery from Jasprit Bumrah, but ended up getting a thick outside edge that flew to the slip cordon. It went straight to Kohli, stationed at first slip, but the Indian skipper couldn’t latch on, with the ball flying through his hands.
Buttler is considered one of England’s finest white-ball players, but hasn’t always featured as the primary wicketkeeper in the Test team through the length of his career. However, Buttler has a fairly decent record at home, averaging 36.31 in England, which interestingly is higher than that of Virat Kohli (33.84 in England).
Buttler carried on with a heroic rearguard, facing, at the time of writing, 74 balls for 25 runs. Kohli’s drop could end up proving costly.
