War of words between Jonny Bairstow and Virat Kohli: Jonny Bairstow continued his imperious batting form as he plundered an entertaining, but hard-fought half-century against India on the morning of Day 3 in Edgbaston to keep the hosts afloat after they had lost five wickets in the evening of Day 2.
Amid this, Bairstow was involved in a heated exchange with former India skipper Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli scolds Jonny Bairstow
Kohli was seemingly angry with Bairstow taking his time in the middle. Apart from facing a challenging bowling by Indian bowlers, Bairstow was also having plenty of issues with the sightscreen and some people sitting and moving above it as he regularly stopped play to make adjustments there.
On the first ball of the 32nd over, Shami cut Bairstow in half, the batsman failing to even get bat on a superb delivery that moved in sharply from length and beat the batsman on the inside edge.
A flustered Bairstow then walked down the pitch to chat his batting partner, Ben Stokes, and that perhaps angered Kohli who came charging in from slips to have a word with Bairstow. Kohli was visibly furious and lashed out at the Yorkshire batsman.
As Bairstow argued back, Kohli said “Shut up”. The umpires then intervened. Between overs, Kohli also mocked Bairstow by saying that Shami is a “Little bit faster than Southee, eh?”
You can watch the video here:
It’s tense out there between Virat Kohli and Jonny Bairstow
#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/3lIZjERvDW
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) July 3, 2022
When Bairstow further gestures issues with the sightscreen, Kohli was heard saying “Jonny Bairstow can see everything on the ground apart from the ball”.
— Guess Karo (@KuchNahiUkhada) July 3, 2022
Virat Kohli – “Jonny Bairstow can see everything on the ground apart from the ball”.
— LUHAR_18 (@18vkkk) July 3, 2022
The players then calmed down when in the next over Kohli and Ben Stokes were seen having a chat with smiles on their faces before Kohli did a friendly punch on Bairstow’s shoulders.
However, while Virat Kohli had the upper hand on the verbal, it was Bairstow who let his bat do the talking in a stunning counter-attack on the Indian pacers.
Bairstow, who had started off the day at 12 runs off 47 balls and moved on to 16 runs off 64 balls then decided to play his shots in the typical Baz-Ball style with which he had demolished the Kiwis last month. At the time of writing, Bairstow has smashed 9 fours in his innings so far, and has moved from 16 (64) to 60* (87).
