While the England batsman and Test skipper Joe Root came to the headline due to his ‘mic-drop’ celebration during the third and final ODI of the three-match ODI series against India at Headingley, Indian skipper Virat Kohli grabbed the headline for making another ‘mic-drop’ celebration during the opening day of the first Test of five-match Test series against the hosts England at Edgbaston (Birmingham) on Wednesday.
On the day one of the first Test on Wednesday, after dismissing the set English batsman Joe Root on 80 with a superb direct throw effort (run-out), Indian skipper Kohli imitated Root’s ‘mic-drop’ celebration.
After the end of the day, English opener Keaton Jennings said that there was nothing wrong with that celebration.
The 26-year-old said, “Everybody is entitled to celebrate how they want to. He celebrated, and that’s cool.”
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Jennings, who scored the 42 runs off 98 balls with 4 fours on the day one before getting bowled by the Indian pacer Mohammed Shami, put an important 72-run second wicket partnership with the Test skipper Joe Root. Root played a well-fought knock of 80 runs with 9 fours and helped the team to grow up a solid innings.
The young left-handed batsman has admired the Test skipper as he said that he has learnt a lot from Root.
Jennings said, “Root played fantastically well. The way he goes about constructing his innings, builds it, communicates with me as a young cricketer, it is absolutely phenomenal. Having batted with him today, he’s taught me a hell of a lot, which is awesome, just to watch a master at his work.
“He’s a fantastic player, fantastic guy and to watch him go about building a Test innings on a pretty tough surface was pretty good. I suppose it’s pretty disappointing for him personally not to go on and get a really big score.”
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In the early of that innings, Jennings got a life as the Indian specialist slip fielder Ajinkya Rahane dropped him on 10 runs. Jennings blamed himself to not count that opportunity in a big way as he was bowled out on 42 runs.
Talking about his innings, Jennings said, “I suppose the best players in the world make those lucky breaks or have them go in their favour. That’s the way it is. I’ve made an error, misjudged the ball, and it’s ended up in my stumps.”
At the one stage, the hosts England was in very commanding position on 216/3. But in the last session of the day, the hosts lost their wickets in the regular interval as they ended the day on 285/9.
However, Jennings is currently not afraid on that late collapse as he believes that the good score can’t be predicted until both sides have batted.
The English opener said on that, “You look off 35 overs of cricket, off the old ball, there still seems to be a bit of lateral movement. I suppose from our point of view we’ve got 300 on the board and if we can come out and be pretty relentless in the way we go about hitting our areas at some point tomorrow, you don’t actually know what a good score it is. On one hand, it is a missed opportunity, but on the other, you don’t know what a good score is until both sides have batted.”
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At the end of the day one, the Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the star of the day with the bowling figure of 25-7-60-4. Jennings has praised the Indian off-spinner for his successful effort against the most of English batsmen.
Talking about the experienced Indian spinner, Jennings said, “He’s a very good bowler. He lands the ball in the right place and varies his pace. He bowled nicely today. At the end of the day, we come up with a game plan in order to play off-spinners as a left-hander. Bowled a good ball to Cooky this morning, maybe that came down to a bit of tackiness in the surface. I’ve played him a couple of times, played against him at Worcester last year, so it’s not the first time I’ve played against him and hopefully, I get many more opportunities to.”
