London, Aug 2: India fast bowler Prasidh Krishna revealed that engaging Joe Root in a verbal exchange on the second day of the fifth Test at The Oval was part of a deliberate strategy to disrupt the former England captain’s focus. While Krishna downplayed the incident as mere banter, he admitted to being surprised at Root getting rattled.

Root walked out to the crease with the team in a strong position at 129/2 in response to India's 224. The very first ball Root faced, a rising delivery from good length, he was rapped on the glove by Prasidh. Two balls later, a wobble-seam delivery straightened to beat Root's defense. It was then, possibly, that Prasidh said those words to him.

The very next ball, Root guided a boundary past gully and even offered a verbal reaction to Prasidh's action from before. At the change of overs, umpire Kumar Dharmasena intervened and had a long chat with Prasidh, with even skipper Shubman Gill and KL Rahul jumping in the bowlers' defense.

The exact words, which came when Root was yet to get off the mark and played and missed at Krishna, were not picked up by the stump mic but Krishna said he just told Root 'you are looking in great shape'. "I don't know why Rooty (reacted). I just said, 'You're looking in great shape,' and then it turned into a lot of abuse and all of that," the 29-year-old pacer told the BBC's Test Match Special.

Later at the press conference, Prasidh said it had been a strategy of his to try and get Root off his game but there was nothing antagonistic about the exchange to add to the other sparks that have been lit through the series.

"That was the plan, but I didn't expect the couple of words I said to get such a big reaction from him. That's just who I am when I'm bowling, when I'm enjoying. 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," Prasidh said at the press conference.

England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick did not want to read too much into India's plan to rattle Root and 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. "

The second day of play also saw Akash Deep putting his arm around Ben Duckett after dismissing him. Later, Duckett was involved in another heated exchange with Sai Sudharsan moments before stumps, following the latter’s LBW dismissal that stood despite a review.

Reacting to the incident, Trescothick said, "He didn't really say too much. Strange, really. I don't think you really need to be putting your arm around someone, but nothing was really said, was it? You just don't really see it. We were chatting on the balcony there and I know many good people playing in county cricket would have said something or dug the elbow in, or something like that."

(IANS)

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