During the recently concluded 2nd Test of the 5-match series between England and India at Lord’s, tempers flared throughout the game, and visitors had the last laugh in the end as they won the game by 151 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series. Of the many verbal spats involving Jasprit Bumrah, Mark Wood and Jos Buttler, Mohammed Siraj and Ollie Robinson, the most eye-catching were between the stalwarts Virat Kohli and James Anderson, who had an altercation on Day 4 when the latter ran in his is follow-through on the middle of the pitch.
Unimpressed, Virat Kohli mouthed a few words, before Anderson managed to come up with a response with a few expletives himself while going back to deliver. Here’s the war of words between the famed rivals:
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- Virat Kohli: “What was that? huh? Swearing at me again, like Jasprit [Bumrah] huh?”
- James Anderson: “You can swear at me all you want. No one else can.”
- Virat Kohli: “You play by your own rules. You are calling me a Fu***** Pr*** for running too? This isn’t your backyard!”
- James Anderson: “I think that bowlers can run through the crease too.”
- Virat Kohli: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chirp, chirp, chirp. This is what old age makes you do.”
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Interestingly, Anderson’s accomplice and a veteran of 149 Tests himself, Stuart Broad chose to comment on Kohli’s choice of words, as he took to Twitter on wrote next day: “The Lord’s honors board suggests it’s as close to Jimmy’s backyard as Jimmy’s actual backyard. Love the fire but that language will have him in trouble.”
Here is the complete video shared by England’s Barmy army:
This is pure theatre and we are only 2 matches in 😯
Test match cricket, never change. pic.twitter.com/yT5yvGIF3B
— England's Barmy Army (@TheBarmyArmy) August 18, 2021
The next Test of the series will be commencing on August 25 at Headingley and the hosts have named a different 15-member squad for the game. Dawid Malan has been recalled while both Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley have been dropped. Further, England, who already released spinner Dom Bess last week, has also released Jack Leach, although he remains to be Moeen Ali’s backup.
