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A quiet word, three balls into Joe Root’s innings, ended up shifting the mood – and the match – on a cloudy Friday at The Oval. India’s fast bowler Prasidh Krishna told Root, “You’re looking in great shape,” and roughly 25 minutes later the former England captain was back in the pavilion for 29. India, a touch flat during a bright morning, suddenly had the initiative in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy decider.
India had trailed by 129 for 2 when Root replaced Zak Crawley, who had top-edged a pull to give Prasidh his first wicket. Conditions flipped after lunch; the sun disappeared, the ball nipped, and Prasidh, Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj began to slow England to a crawl.
First ball to Root: a length delivery reared, clipped the glove. Two balls later: a wobble-seam ball straightened just enough to beat the inside edge. Then came the remark. Next delivery, Root stroked a square-drive for four – but for once couldn’t just laugh it off. He barked back, forcing umpire Kumar Dharmasena to step in. Dharmasena spoke to Prasidh for more than two minutes while KL Rahul and captain Shubman Gill listened in. For several overs the umpire shadowed the bowler, making sure the chatter stayed on the right side of the line.
Later, chatting to Test Match Special, Prasidh sounded almost bemused. “I don’t know why Rooty [reacted],” he said. “I just said, ‘You’re looking in great shape,’ and then it turned into a lot of abuse and all of that.”
He expanded at the press conference: “That was the plan, but I didn’t expect the couple of words I said to get such a big reaction from him.” According to the 28-year-old, India had discussed the tactic in advance: a little verbal poke to disturb England’s most reliable run-scorer. “That’s just who I am when I’m bowling, when I’m enjoying,” he added. “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.”
Root did not talk after play. England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick, though, kept the incident in perspective. “I think they made a comment, didn’t they?” Trescothick said. “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.”
Up in the press box the consensus was simple: neither player crossed the line, and the umpire’s early intervention prevented anything uglier. Still, Root’s dismissal – edging an Akash Deep outswinger to second slip five overs later – left England wobbling at 157 for 4. From cruising, they were suddenly in repair mode.
Whether the war of words truly caused the wicket is impossible to prove. Former India seamer Zaheer Khan, on TV duty, reckoned the tactic worked. “Root plays so late, so quietly, that any disturbance to his rhythm is gold dust,” he said. Former England captain Michael Atherton was less sure: “He’d faced 14 balls before he nicked off. That’s a reasonable sample. Sometimes you just get a good one.”
Either way the numbers are stark. Root has 415 runs at 83 this series. Remove Friday’s 29 and the average jumps even higher. India know he is the prize. With Ben Stokes managing a hip niggle and Harry Brook still settling back into international cricket, England’s batting leans hard on Root’s calm.
From a tactical angle, Prasidh’s approach made sense. He is returning from a stress fracture, still re-finding his top pace (he hovered around 138-140kph in the afternoon spell). The seam movement, especially with the wobble-seam ball – seam tilted slightly off-centre so it can deviate late – gives him an extra weapon, but he isn’t quite at Jasprit Bumrah’s level for menace. Stirring a reaction, making Root play a shot too early, is a marginal gain worth chasing.
Not everyone enjoys the noise. One Oval member, walking under the Peter May stand, muttered: “Bit of playground stuff, that.” Yet sledging – within limits – remains part of Test cricket’s texture. The trick is control. Prasidh appears to understand that. He smiled when asked if he feared a fine. “No, sir,” he said, “I was polite.”
By stumps India had nudged ahead. England closed on 254 for 7, Ollie Pope undefeated on 61, Jasprit Bumrah prowling with the second new ball. The contest is alive; so, perhaps, is the verbal undercurrent. Saturday could bring fresh exchanges, especially if Root walks out early.
For now, Prasidh is content that a single, seemingly harmless compliment fractured England’s composure. Whether it proves decisive in the match – or the series – will unfold soon enough.
