If England's 1000th Test match was supposed to be special for the hosts, the history books would surely state that it was captain Virat Kohli who stole the limelight. The Indian skipper has silenced his critics with his impressive performance in the 1st Test of the series itself. While the rest could not contribute, it was Kohli who stood tall on the second day at Edgbaston, Birmingham scoring a scintillating 149 to give his team a fighting chance at winning the Test.
However, it didn't prove enough as England held their nerves to register a narrow 31 run victory. Speaking at the occasion of MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, England's ODI opener Jason Roy, though thinks that there is no reason for his team to be afraid of the ICC No. 1 Test batsman.
The opener cut off the presenter Mark Nicholas midway when the latter was saying "....when you play against Virat, he is the one you're scared of..." at which point Roy said: "Not scared of him, no."
"He's obviously a great player, and rightly so, you've given him such kind words," said the England opener. "He's an extremely good athlete, an imposing batsman, an imposing figure on the field. We've got to find ways of dismantling him somehow, so we can't give him too much praise right here," added Roy.
It remains to be seen whether England can walk the talk as Kohli looks set to prove his detractors wrong this summer. The next Test starts at Lord's on August 9.
