‘That Was The Plan’ – Prasidh Krishna Opens Up on His On-field Spat With Joe Root in ENG vs IND 5th Test

Indian pacer Prasidh Krishna has cleared the air about his on-field confrontation with the former England captain Joe Root on the second day of the ongoing fifth and final fixture of the ENG vs IND Test series. The bowler admitted that it was “just a banter” between the two players who were giving their all to turn the tide in their respective teams’ favour.

“It was just a little bit of banter and both of us enjoyed it,” stated Krishna at the press conference after stumps on Day 2.

Prasidh Krishna on His Heated Conversations With Joe Root

The 29-year-old explained how his on-field altercation with Root during the second session of Day 2 fired him up. Krishna went on to bag a four-wicket haul, which is also his best performance in an innings of this series so far.

“That’s just who I am. When I’m bowling, I try to have a bit of chatter with the batsman and it does help me when the batsman also is under the nerves and I can get a reaction from him. I enjoyed the way that I was bowling, maybe a wicket or two there also would have made things better,” he added.

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Furthermore, the pacer stated that it was a planned execution to rile up Root during the game, but also revealed that the animated reaction from the batter was quite unexpected to him. However, he did not stretch the argument further after the match. Instead, he hailed the 34-year-old as “a legend of the game” while praising the efforts to be a match-winner for their respective sides.

“That was the plan. But I didn’t really expect a couple of words that I said to get such a big reaction from him. But like I said, I love the guy that he is. He is a legend of the game, and I think it is great when two people are out there trying to do the best and to be a winner at a given moment,” concluded Krishna.

Krishna and Mohammed Siraj’s Four-wicket Hauls Kept India in the Hunt

The visitors entered the fifth match trailing 2-1 in the series, where only a win at The Oval could help them to save the series by drawing levels on 2-2. But after getting folded for just 224 runs in the first innings, and a speedy start from the openers to take the hosts to 92 for no loss under 13 overs, the Indian pace attack mounted a huge comeback.

The pair of Krishna and Mohammed Siraj snared four wickets each and restricted England to a mere 23-run lead. In the second innings, opener Yashasvi Jaiswal regained his lost rhythm to put up a brilliant half-century at a strike rate of 104.08, following an early dismissal of KL Rahul, who had enjoyed a stunning form in this series so far. However, Jaiswal (51) and Akash Deep (4) will resume India’s innings at 75/2 on Day 3 of the final fixture.

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