England’s Joe Root (80) and Jonny Bairstow (70) were the top scorers on Day 1 of the first Test but it was Indian captain Virat Kohli’s mic-drop celebration to send-off Root that stole the show.
England captain Root was looking confident and eyeing a big total but a brilliant piece of fielding from Kohli saw the right-handed batsman getting run-out at 80.
Wicketkeeper Bairstow played the ball to midwicket for a single and then they challenged Kohli and tried to complete the other one but a direct hit from the Indian captain sent back Root.
Following Root’s dismissal, the Indian captain enacted Root’s bat-drop celebration from the third one-day international against India at Headingley last month.
Kohli bid goodbye to Root with a flying kiss before quickly putting his finger on his lips.
#ENGvIND Virat Kohli Version Of Mic Off pic.twitter.com/dLeZBsdI8s
— Udit Panwar __ (@Udiit_Panwar) August 2, 2018
Following Root’s dismissal, England batting line collapsed and they were left struggling at 285/9 at stumps on Day 1.
I Love You bubs ___
___ pic.twitter.com/mq6LtCZUiE— virat _ anushka (@viratanushka_) August 1, 2018
Kohli’s gesture got mixed reactions on social media with some calling the act ‘childish’ and some finding it hilarious. However, England batsman Keaton Jennings saw nothing wrong in Indian skipper’s send-off gesture.
Here are a few tweets from cricket fans:
Virat is no doubt a world class player but this is reality that he’s a child in celebrations. Grow up kid
— Kashif Amin jatoi (@kashif_jatoi) August 2, 2018
That’s a big spicy _ but hilarious though #loveit _ pic.twitter.com/AxIfJrLyxK
— ______ __ (@madmax29580547) August 2, 2018
“Everybody is entitled to celebrate how they want to,” said the 26-year-old opening batsman. “He celebrated, and that’s cool.”
For India, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the star of the day as he picked up four crucial wickets, including of Alastair Cook, while Mohammad Shami took two wickets. Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma scalped one wicket each.
Fall of Wickets: 26-1 (Alastair Cook, 8.5), 98-2 (Keaton Jennings, 35.1), 112-3 (Dawid Malan, 39.3), 216-4 (Joe Root, 62.3), 223-5 (Jonny Bairstow, 65.6), 224-6 (Jos Buttler, 66.4), 243-7 (Ben Stokes, 74.1), 278-8 (Adil Rashid, 83.1), 283-9 (Stuart Broad, 84.2).
