Prasidh speaks about his verbal barrage with Joe Root saying ‘That was the plan’ to rattle the veteran Englishman.
‘That was the plan’ – Prasidh on verbal duel with Root.
“You are looking in great shape.”
Prasidh Krishna had no idea that his remarks would upset Joe Root and be a major factor in his removal for 29 during Friday’s exciting middle session, which saw England lose the Oval Test to India.
After Zak Crawley fell while trying to pull off Prasidh, giving the tall fast bowler the first of his four wickets of the innings, Root came in with England in control at 129 for 2. As the weather slides changed from sunny in the morning to cloudy in the afternoon, Prasidh, Mohammed Siraj, and Akash Deep had begun to control the run flow.
Root was whacked on the glove by Prasidh on the first ball he faced, a rising delivery of decent length. After two balls, Root’s defence was overpowered by a wobble-seam delivery that straightened out. Prasidh may have said those things to him at that moment.
The umpire, Kumar Dharmasena, had to step in and speak with Prasidh after Root smashed a square-driven four then unexpectedly yelled at him in the following delivery. As the umpire warned Prasidh for excessive violence in a conversation that lasted more than two minutes, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill joined the group.
Prasidh conceded he was surprised at Root getting rattled. “I don’t know why Rooty [reacted],” he told the BBC’s Test Match Special. “I just said, ‘you’re looking in great shape’ and then it turned into a lot of abuse and all of that.”
Before the Oval Test, the visitors devised a scheme to divert Root’s attention by duelling him verbally, Prasidh acknowledged. “That was the plan, but I didn’t expect the couple of words I said to get such a big reaction from him,” he added during the press conference.
Prasidh claimed that he liked to be “aggressive” and that the “competitive edge” was the only thing that led to what he called “banter” between Root and him.
“That’s just who I am when I’m bowling, when I’m enjoying [my game],” he said. “If it means that I have a bit of a chatter with the batter… and it does help me when I can get under the nerves of the batsman and get a reaction from them. But 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 wanting to do the best and be a winner at a given moment.”
As England’s top run-maker this series, Marcus Trescothick, the assistant coach, did not want to read too much into India’s plot to unsettle Root.
“I think they made a comment, didn’t they?” Trescothick said after the day’s play. “He [Prasidh] obviously tried to get after him [Root] and spark him up a little bit. Maybe they have seen him play so well over the last couple of games that India tried a different approach, and Joe bit back, as sometimes he does. Normally, he is the sort of guy who just laughs and giggles and allows things to happen, but today he just chose a different route. Everyone has their own method of dealing with that sort of approach, and today Joe bit back.”