Woakes Says Kohli Is a World-Class Player and Getting Him Out Quickly Is Important

The third Test between India and England is already underway from Saturday and the visitors had a good first day after being asked to bat first.

Cricket news: Rishabh Pant is an extremely good white-ball player, says Chris Woakes

It is the first time in the series that the Indian batsmen have looked confident out in the middle and the openers batted extremely well upfront to give a solid start to the innings.

If it were not for Chris Woakes then the hosts would have got an even worse day at hand as Woakes took three wickets in the first session and momentarily broke India’s momentum.

After a good start, India were reduced from 60/0 to 82/3 in a gap of eight overs as they lost Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara, all of them been taken by Woakes.

It was then the skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane that put on a 159-run stand for the fourth wicket which frustrated the Brits.

Woakes was happy at the end of the day because of Kohli’s dismissal, who got out to Adil Rashid for the fourth time in the tour. Kohli missed his 23rd Test century by just 3 runs as he got out on 97.

“If he (Rashid) could do that when he’s on nought, that’d be nice. But Virat’s a world-class player, so to get him out at any point in the game is important because obviously he can go on and score big ones, go on and get ‘doubles’. So that’s a big wicket for us, and to then get another tonight was important,” he said.

Woakes also praised the promising young debutant Rishabh Pant as he said that Pant is a good white-ball player and getting his wicket early on the second day would be beneficial.

“He’s an extremely good white-ball player. He obviously comes out and plays his shots, as we saw to Adil today. (But) I suppose in English conditions, you like to think if you put the ball in the right areas enough we might be able to find his edge,” he added.

Woakes’ figure of 3/75 was the best among the Brits on the first day and would be eager to get the remainng four wickets and end the visitors’ innings as early as possible on the second day.