Former India skipper Virat Kohli has come under the scanner for his verbal duel with England batter Jonny Bairstow on Day 3 of the reschedule fifth at Edgbaston.
Bairstow was struggling in the morning session, having scored 13 off 61 balls and survived a few close calls. However, it all changed after Kohli triggered him by sledging.
The two players had an altercation in the middle before the England batter took on the Indian bowlers to smash 93 off his next 79 balls.
The video of their heated went viral on social media and former cricketers also shared their views on it.
Ex-England captain Nasser Hussain opined that it wasn’t wise of Kohli to sledge the in-form Bairstow, who had slammed two successive centuries in the last Test series against New Zealand.
"He has controlled his instincts, he has controlled his emotions and it did not prove wise of Virat Kohli to wind him up because - as we have seen so many times over the years - when Jonny is fiery or has a point to prove he's very dangerous," Hussain wrote in a column for The Daily Mail
"That's three hundreds in successive Tests now, Bairstow adding a high-quality third in this re-arranged last Test against India, and I have not seen him play a single reckless shot in that time. There has not been one occasion when I've thought, 'Don't do that Jonny, you're better than that."
Jonny Bairstow ended up scoring an entertaining century (106 off 140 balls), propelling England to 284/10 in the first innings. However, the visitors took a massive lead of 132 runs with Mohammed Siraj (4-66) and Jasprit Bumrah (3-68) starring with the ball.
"We have to remember England are playing a top-quality team in India. It’s very hard to bully this attack and India have shown when you go hard at them they come back harder, as Kohli was trying to do yesterday," Hussain mentioned.
Former India opener Wasim Jaffer also weighed in on this subject, saying Kohli’s chirping gave Bairstow the extra motivation.
"Yes, because before that he was batting very carefully. But when you instigate someone, it backfires sometimes. So maybe Bairstow got pumped up after that sledge," Jaffer stated.
