Virat Kohli and Joe Root: Captains in contrast

Virat Kohli and Joe root

While Joe Root has scored more runs than Virat Kohli, the Indian captain has outsmarted the Yorkshireman tactically.

A five-match Test series these days is a hard endurance test, especially for captains and backroom staff, who must adjust their gameplans every week while maintaining team spirit. The players have very little time to relax and heal, let alone find their form.

Another result of a tight schedule is that teams quickly get on each other's nerves, and the atmosphere can become explosive, as it did in the second Test at Lord's. And it's at this point that things start to get problematic for the captains.

On the fifth morning, England became engrossed in a game of one-upmanship and allowed the Test slip away from them. Not that India is complaining, but a five-Test rubber also highlights the captain's ability to get the best out of his men in a dead-heat contest from a strategic standpoint. In that sense, the two captains - Joe Root and Virat Kohli - have had a very different trip thus far.

Although the series is still young, Root leads the run-getters' list with 386 runs at an eye-popping average of 128.67 after two Tests, much ahead of Kohli, who has 62 runs in three appearances for India. However, India leads the series 1-0, and things may have been different coming into the third Test at Leeds if the weather hadn't intervened on Day 5 in Nottingham.

Root has made the typically fearsome Indian pace assault look tame by scoring two top-class hundreds (109 and 180*). Despite his dominance with the bat, the 30-year-old Yorkshireman has struggled to make effective use of the resources at his disposal, and his methods have drawn criticism from all quarters.

He (Root) has simply lost the plot. His primary issue is that he is oblivious to the circumstance. England has found itself in a bind because someone should have seen a long time ago that Joe isn't the appropriate man for the job, especially against stronger opponents. So, what are your plans? On the eve of an Ashes series, change the captain? That isn't a good plan. But by choosing him as captain, you're giving yourself a very slim chance of winning," Australian media quoted Chappell as saying.

Kohli, who retired from international cricket last Thursday after 13 years, has struggled to make large runs for nearly two seasons. Despite this, he remains the Indian team's conductor and heartbeat.He now appears to be okay with letting his bowlers establish their fields, and he doesn't mind bouncing ideas off Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane while plotting a removal. Kohli is currently just behind Graeme Smith (53), Ricky Ponting (48), and Steve Waugh (48) as the fourth-most successful Test skipper in history (37 wins from 63 Tests) (41). If he continues in this vein, he will break the record for the most successful Test skipper in history.

Joe root

LEEDS (Reuters) - England captain Joe Root said it's difficult to see his former Yorkshire teammate Azeem Rafiq "hurting" after his charges of "institutional racism" at the cricket club, and he asked all stakeholders to raise awareness about the issue.

Rafiq, a former England U-19 captain, revealed last year that he was on the verge of suicide after being subjected to bigotry while playing for Yorkshire from 2008 to 2017.

Last Thursday, the club apologised, stating he was the victim of "inappropriate behaviour."

I can't really conjecture or make any generalisations about a report I haven't seen, but as a former teammate and friend, it's difficult to watch him in such pain "Before the third Test against India, Root stated.

"And, more importantly, I believe it demonstrates that we still have a lot of work to do as a game.

In my opinion, this is a societal issue. We've seen it in other sports and in other areas, and as a sport, we must continue to look for ways to ensure that this isn't a debate that continues. We need to discover ways to expand opportunities, diversify our game, improve education, and that thing that only comes from players and administrators.

As with everyone else in the game, there has to be a desire and a willingness to do so. It's something we need to prioritise as a sport to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future."

Root believes that the sport should continue to raise awareness about racial injustice through frequent activities and gestures.

We need to keep demonstrating that we need to keep trying to create opportunities to show that the sport is for everyone, and that we're keen to make everyone aware of it and feel welcome. It is such a fantastic sport that it should be experienced by everyone, hopefully through various activities.

Small things we can do on the field and around the games for a minute, and we really must take advantage of the opportunity to do them; we must do more."