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'Hostile environment' at Lord's was ideal for Virat Kohli; he would have 'thrived': 'Shouldn't be saying this but...'
Australia women's team captain Alyssa Healy said that the hostile environment at Lord's made her miss Virat Kohli as the latter would have absolutely “thrived.”
The world knows Virat Kohli loves to be in the middle of a contest. Heated verbals and duels on the field get the best of the right-handed batter, and one can only imagine how the former India captain would have reacted had he been a part of the Lord's Test against England, where tempers reached a boiling point on Day 3. The last two days of the third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy saw plenty of verbal exchanges between both teams. Mohammed Siraj was also docked 15 per cent of his match fees for the fiery send-off he gave to Ben Duckett.
The Lord's Test ended in heartbreak for Shubman Gill-led India. The visitors suffered a 22-run defeat after failing to chase down 193. But it was truly a great advertisement for the longest format, and one will always remember the image of Joe Root and Zak Crawley going up to Mohammed Siraj to console him after he lost his wicket.
Australia women's team captain Alyssa Healy said that she would have loved to see Virat Kohli in the middle of such a heated contest, as he thrived in such situations.
Kohli announced his retirement from Tests in May 2025, midway through the Indian Premier League (IPL) season. The 36-year-old called time on his Test career, having played 123 matches in which he scored 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.
“The way with which the two teams were going about it, I could not stop watching. I loved it. It was spicy and I loved it. The chatter that was going on. I just thought of the contest itself. Entertaining, right?” Healy said on the Listnr Podcast.
“I shouldn't be saying this for the sake of this current Indian team. But it made me miss Virat Kohli a little bit. I would imagine he would have absolutely thrived in that hostile environment, trying to save that Test match. But Jadeja tried his best,” she added.
‘Well within the rules’
India were 112/8 at one stage in their chase of 193. But Ravindra Jadeja put up a fight with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. However, right when it started to feel like England were under pressure, Shoaib Bashir bowled Siraj, handing England a famous win.
The third day of the Lord's Test saw India captain Shubman Gill losing his cool and swearing on live television as he asked England opener Zak Crawley to “grow some f*****g b***s”.
England had to bat out six minutes before the close of play on Day 3. India could have gotten in two overs, but Crawley deliberately wasted time, ensuring the visitors bowl just one over.
Gill charged towards the stump mic and let his feelings known to the England openers. However, Healy said that it was totally uncalled for as India themselves took a lot of breaks throughout the Test.
“That's well within the rules. The whole spirit of the game, this whole grey area, not fitting in this situation. But I mean, you talk about the game itself. India can't blow up about Crawley doing that then when India right throughout the day before had a drinks break every 15 minutes, there were drinks being brought out,” she said.
“At the end of the day, if you wanted a couple of more overs at England, you could have increased the speed throughout the day. I think that's maybe where stuff started. There was a bit of frustration throughout the series about some of the DRS calls and umpiring. There has been stuff lingering and finally it blew over. But I loved it. It was awesome,” she added.
