Joe Root wants tips on chasing from Virat Kohli ahead of Cuttack ODI

Joe Root wants tips on chasing from Virat Kohli ahead of Cuttack ODI

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Contemporary rival Joe Root has heaped praise on Virat Kohli for the way he constructed the match-winning chase with Kedhar Jadhav in the first ODI at Pune. Root expressed his desire to learn from the chasing master but also rued the fact that England failed to get him out early when he looked edgy.

Virat Kohli, who equaled Sachin Tendulkar for the record of maximum centuries in chases, produced a stunning counter-attacking partnership with Kedar Jadhav to take India past England's 350 at Pune.

Speaking to the Guardian ahead of the second ODI in Cuttack on Thursday, Root expressed his awe at the Indian skipper's ability to chase down targets.

“He’s one of the best at run chases in the game, in fact he probably is the best at it. His record says he’s got 15 hundreds chasing scores down now. I’d love to sit and chat to him, but I’ve not had that opportunity yet. Definitely watching him go about his business there is a lot of thought behind it,” said Root.

Root also revealed that they would spend more time in finding chinks in Kohli's armor after their plan to go after "the guy at the other end", as Eoin Morgan put it, failed miserably.

“It was disappointing how it panned out considering the start we had,” he said. “One thing we noticed is that early on he chanced his arm which you have to, I suppose, to get up near the run rate.

“We didn’t get the opportunities to stick, and in hindsight if we could have slightly more individual plans to him then that could be a way to go. He got one just over third man and it looked like we were going to take a wicket at any stage in that five-over period after Dhoni got out.

“One thing he did was talk his partner through it at the other end and helped him construct his innings. There was a lot of thought behind it and for us, that is something we’ve got to learn from,” he said.

Given Kohli has scored at an average of 109.16 against them in the Test series, one can understand why England decided to go for the other guy. The English think-tank will now have their hands full in going back to finidng a way to somehow dismissing Kohli - preferably early.

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