Wahab, Root in war of words
Wahab Riaz and Joe Root got involved in an on-field conversation in the evening session of the fourth day of the second Test match in Dubai. This situation forced the umpires to step in between the two players to bring the situation under control. The England head coach Trevor Bayliss afterwards met the match referee to discuss the on-field ball manipulation by Wahab Riaz, reports ESPNCricinfo.
Due to sweaty palms, Wahab kicked the ball towards the wicket-keeper instead of picking it up as he was fielding and this incident took place only once. At the time, Root took the case rather seriously with Wahab, where no foul play appeared on his part.
There is no such footage which claimed that Wahab was stepping onto the ball with his bowling boots on. But later it was seen that the English contingent took this situation quite seriously as they spoke to the match referee Andy Pycroft.
When asked about Root and Wahab’s heated on-field conversation, England's assistant coach Paul Farbrace said, "In the heat of battle you will see the odd exchange between players. The umpires dealt with it, Wahab certainly won't be signing for Chelsea with his football skills. It happened, you move on. That's the end of it."
Wahab was successful in dismissing England’s middle order on the third day with three wickets to his name including Root. But he picked up only one wicket in the second innings as Imran Khan, Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah have bowled well to pick up the remaining wickets.
Cook’s fitness, a concern
Alastair Cook’s fitness is a bit of a concern to England as he was striving hard to run between the wickets and made 10 off 22 balls. He has been in discomfort during the ongoing test since he split the webbing on his left hand in Abu Dhabi which required stitches.
"I'm not aware of any injury, except for the amount of hours he's spent hunched over a bat handle scoring thousands of runs," Farbrace said.
Cook has also suffered spinal pains at the start of the 2013-14 Ashes tour - but Farbrace said there was nothing more than normal management of him being undertaken.
"He does spend time with the physio and masseuse as most players would do. He is someone from time to time who does get treatment on his back, but honestly it's not something we are spending time talking about. He needs to manage himself and he does that really well. It isn't a concern for us," Farbrace continued.