Joe Root has relished the early drama of Virat Kohli’s pointed run out celebration in the first Test at Edgbaston.
A typically impassioned Kohli responded to running out the England captain on day one by blowing kisses and signalling his unhappiness with Root’s ‘bat drop’ celebration during the ODI series.
Root smiled when asked about the incident on Sky Sports.
“I didn’t see it in the middle, I obviously saw it last night at the end of play. I just think it adds to the whole spectacle of Test cricket, it gives a bit of humour to it. It makes for a very entertaining series for something like that to happen so early on. So let’s see how things pan out over the course of the five Test matches.”
Root also insisted there were no hard feelings between him and his Yorkshire teammate Jonny Bairstow, after the England wicketkeeper’s call created the run out opportunity in the first place, when the home side were well set.
“I could definitely have said no,” Root said. “It’s just one of those things, in the heat of the moment you want to try and pinch as many runs as possible and you hear a call and you trust your mate. It’s human error – it happens unfortunately in sport. Jonny was kind enough to give me a lift into the ground this morning.
“No one does anything like that on purpose. There’s obviously no hard feelings there. You’ve just got to move on, get on with it.”