"Pant banwa diya bewajah sledge karke" - Virender Sehwag slams Virat Kohli for argument with Jonny Bairstow in 5th Test vs ENG
Former opener Virender Sehwag has taken an explicit dig at Virat Kohli for sledging Jonny Bairstow during the Edgbaston Test between India and England.
Bairstow struggled to handle the swing and pace of India's pacers at the start of Day 3. After missing a sharp in-swinger from Mohammad Shami in the 32nd over, he and Kohli were involved in a heated argument.
The latter followed it up with a mocking laugh when Bairstow missed the next ball.
Though the duo were seen sharing a laugh soon after, Bairstow started to take the bowlers on from the next over, similar to how he did in the previous series against New Zealand.
The aggression paid dividends and the Englishman smashed a 140-ball 106 to lift his team from 83-5 to 241-7 and avoid a follow-on scare.
In a short tweet before Bairstow's dismissal, Sehwag pointed at the wicketkeeper-batter's strike rate before and after the sledging incident. He slammed Kohli for "unnecessarily" riling him up to transition from defensive Cheteswhar Pujara-like to a belligerent Rishabh Pant.
The tweet read:
"Jonny Bairstow's Strike Rate before Kohli's Sledging -: 21 Post Sledging - 150. Pujara ki tarah khel rahe thhey, Kohli ne Pant banwa diya bewajah sledge karke"
Jonny Bairstow's Strike Rate before Kohli's Sledging -: 21
Post Sledging - 150
Pujara ki tarah khel rahe thhey, Kohli ne Pant banwa diya bewajah sledge karke #IndvsEng
Sehwag is currently being bashed on Twitter for the comment, with fans criticizing him for taking a myopic view on the issue.
Interestingly, it was Shami who eventually dismissed Bairstow with Kohli taking the catch at slips. Tellingly, the celebrations were quite muted compared to when Ben Stokes got out.
Onus on Sam Billings after Jonny Bairstow's wicket
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Bairstow's wicket left England 175 runs behind India's first innings score. The onus now lies on the three-Test old wicketkeeper-batter Sam Billings.
The right-hander is technically correct and has shown in his county stints that he can work with the tail. That's exactly what the visitors now need to reduce the deficit to a manageable number.