Cricket News

Watch: Virat Kohli tries Joe Root’s bat–balancing magic act in the Warm-up game against Leicestershire

Cricket is an incredible game. More often than not it’s the player’s batting, bowling or fielding performances which make headlines. But sometimes it’s the on-field antics of certain players that find a space in the news. Among the many incidents that made headlines from the first day of the warm-up match between India and Leicestershire, there was one moment that fans loved the most.

In one of the memorable moments from Day 1, Indian star batsman Virat Kohli was seen trying to balance his bat on its own making it appear as if it’s standing straight without any support but the former Indian captain failed in his attempt to do so.

It seemed as if Kohli was inspired by Joe Root who managed to accomplish the task with ease during the fourth innings of the first Test match against New Zealand. Root managed to make his bat appear to stand on its own at the non-striker’s end for a brief moment. The clip of the batsman’s unique antics got viral on the social media platforms leaving the fans in awe of his ability to do so. Some fans were asking the question ‘if there is anything that Joe Root can’t do on the cricket field?

Kohli tried to replicate Root’s trick but failed in his attempt. The bat immediately moved towards him once he pulled his hand off, unlike what happened with Root.

After Joe roots magic which was seen on the pitch by balancing the bat @imVkohli trying the same 😂 pic.twitter.com/TUZpAUJSA1

— Yashwanth (@bittuyash18) June 23, 2022

Another striking feature of the Warm-up game was that four Indian players Rishabh Pant, Cheteshwar Pujara, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna were playing for the Leicestershire side. There was an interesting battle going on between the Indian Opener Rohit Sharma and the speedster Jasprit Bumrah. Bumrah even managed to trouble Sharma on one occasion when the ball hit him in the box.

India ended Day 1 on the score of 246/8 with Srikar Bharat being the only batsman to shine with the bat scoring 70. Bharat and Mohammad Shami were at the crease for India at the close of play.