Joe Root lets his frustration get the better of him on a tiring day for England

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England’s Joe Root often finds himself in the headlines. It’s no surprise that he does, given his unquestionable talent with the bat. He was one who was shoehorned for greatness from the first time he stepped onto a cricket field.

Not only is he among the world’s elite batsmen, standing equal with Virat Kohli, Steven Smith and Kane Williamson, he is quite adept with the ball as well. He has the knack of picking up a wicket as soon as he comes into bowl, a talent greats like Sachin Tendulkar possessed as well.

In his Test career, he has taken 15 wickets already. So it is no surprise that Alastair Cook turns to Root when things aren’t going his team’s way.

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Such was the case on day 3 of the fifth Test between India and England at Chennai.

For the second Test in a row, England put up a mighty first innings total that should have helped them put pressure on the hosts. But pretty much like the Test in Mumbai last week, in Chennai as well, India responded superbly.

The returning KL Rahul had made his mark with a superb century. One of grit, determination, and patience. The visitors did well to come back into the game in the post-lunch session with the wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. However, they would fail to capitalize as they let Karun Nair settle and build a partnership along with his Karnataka teammate KL Rahul.

Their partnership was over 50 when Cook turned to Root to break their resistance.

In his very first over, he would look to ruffle Karun as well as KL.

Karun took the attack to Root right away, first, working him away for a brace, and then following it up with a reverse sweep for four. When he took a single on the fifth ball of the over, Root would have a number of choice words to say to him as he passed the bowler.

KL would only have to play the last ball of the over. And it was simple enough. He defended it straight back.

Root would pick it up and throw it back to the keeper, standard cricket practice you might think. Except this wasn't. He hurled it at a furious pace and at a low height, very close to KL's head and away from the stumps. KL was forced to take evasive action and was clearly miffed at the strange outburst from Root.

The bowler would apologize a couple of times as he walked away, but KL made sure to point out where the stumps are to him.

This is not the first such incident in this match, only the previous day, Kohli had hurled one dangerously close to Liam Dawson and the batsman had taken exception to that.

Maybe it's just the frustration of the English at the end of a long tour, but things are taking an unsavory turn for the worse.

KL would have the last laugh as he punched Root to the midwicket fence for four to bring up his 150 in the very next over. At the end of the over, Root was forced to accept his defeat and shook the hand of his opponent to congratulate him.