England vs India: Virat Kohli gifts his spikes to young fans at Trent Bridge during the 1st Test

The high-octane five-Test series between India and England got underway on August 4 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, and with that did the second cycle of the ICC World Test Championship.

Plenty of eyebrows were raised when India revealed their playing XI for the first Test as they included Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj in the playing XI, dropping premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and veteran pacer Ishant Sharma.

Even though the Trent Bridge track had a generous covering grass – and the record of the pace at the venue has been staggeringly impressive – not even a handful would have thought that India would play an XI sans Ashwin, more so after he only recently bagged a six-for for Surrey.

Hosts England managed to spring a few surprises themselves as they did not include even a single designated spinner, with only skipper Joe Root and all-rounder Dan Lawrence’s part-time spin as their only resource. Meanwhile, reacting to India’s decision to drop Ashwin, former England skipper Michael Vaughan tweeted: “Wow … No @ashwinravi99!!!! #ENGvIND”.

That aside, it was the response of a fan that caught the attention of many as he revealed that Indian skipper Virat Kohli gifted his spikes to his sons. “No but Virat gave my son his spikes!!”, his response tweet read alongside a picture of his sons gleefully holding the spikes in their hands.

KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma to open for India

India, who lost openers Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal to shin injury and concussion, respectively, went with a new-look opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Meanwhile, India lost another toss, as England invited them to bowl. Virat Kohli has lost each one of his seven tosses in England, which include five from India’s tour of 2018 and the recent World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton.

That said, the decision did not materialize for England, who lost opener, Rory Burns, for a five-ball duck as he was undone smartly by Jasprit Bumrah in the opening over of the Test. Burns challenged the on-field decision, although to no avail.