There is no clarity on Virat Kohli’s return yet and India captain Rohit Sharma has been off-colour with the bat so far in the first two matches of the Test series against England.
Joe Root said England would be happy to keep the Indian legends quiet throughout the five-match series. Kohli didn’t take part in the Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam Tests due to personal reasons. It is still not clear whether he will return for the remaining three Tests but Root said the England team is prepared not only for Kohli but also for Rohit, who hasn’t been at his best in the series so far.
“You mentioned two of the greats (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli) of the modern era. Of course, there’s going to be focus. We know how good they are and they are also very senior within this current Indian batting lineup. So clearly they’ve got a big role to play within this Test team. You want to make sure that you try and get on top of them early.
They’ve got the ability to get big scores and we’ve been on the wrong end of that a few times, so it would be niceRoot, who himself has been short of runs in this series, mainly due to the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah who has already got him out twice in two Tests, however, said there are no team meetings in the England camp for any particular player of the opposition.
“We don’t really do team meetings anymore. That’s one of the great things about how we do all of our conversations away from the game and just that enjoyment and buzz about spending time with each other. We don’t have to sit in a meeting room and I think it’s more authentic and more genuine when you can have it around a dinner table. Having a coffee in the morning or whatever, I think that’s when you do your best learning,” he added.