Picture Credit: Twitter
Indian skipper Virat Kohli doesn't shy away from expressing his feelings about anything on the ground. He is always charged up and celebrates a wicket more than the bowlers do. Also, he is not hesitant to express his displeasure at anything he doesn’t like and he did the same on the first day of the fourth Test against England. Kohli seemed unhappy about Haseeb Hameed taking guard far away from the batting crease and so he talked about it to the on-field umpires.
It was during the first innings of England when opener Haseeb Hameed was taking guard normally, as batters do. But what looked unusual was him walking a long way down the pitch to mark his guard. The England batsman made marks very near to the prohibited area and this was the reason for Kohli getting upset. The Indian captain did not say a word to the batter. However, he made sure to make the umpires aware of the incident. He was seen talking to the two umpires while pointing to the pitch which clearly meant that he was complaining about Hameed tinkering with the pitch. Later, the umpires did make Hameed aware of the same.
Watch the video of the incident here:
Why was Kohli unhappy?
People often complain about Kohli being very emotional but this time the Indian captain did the right thing. According to a law in the ICC Rule book, a batsman cannot take guard five feet away from his crease as this would create continuous encroachment into the danger zone. Even the bowlers are not allowed to walk in that area in their follow-through. The law further states that if a player walks in the danger zone of the pitch even after a warning from the umpire, five penalty runs are awarded to the opposition team.
Few days back, in the third Test, Rishabh Pant was asked by the umpire to change his batting stance as his front foot was falling in the red zone.
As far the Test match is concerned, India got rid of night watchman Craig Overton early on Day 2. Joe Root, England’s captain and the best batsman in the series was dismissed by Umesh Yadav while Bumrah dismissed the two openers Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed. England still trail India by 129 runs with Dawid Malan and Ollie Pope on the crease. Earlier, India posted a challenging total of 191 runs with the help of Virat Kohli’s and Shardul Thakur’s half centuries.
