ENG vs IND | Twitter reacts as Gill turns to Telugu to appreciate Reddy's snorter against Root

England seized control of the third Test early on Day 1 when openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley survived severely testing new-ball spells from Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, and Mohammed Siraj to emerge unscathed with a partnership of 43. However, it took just one Nitish Kumar Reddy pacer to undo all the good work as the Andhra pacer scalped both incumbent batters in his very first over to send shockwaves around the Home of Cricket. The youngster, having had little role to play with the ball in his short Test career so far, had his tail-up after the early successes and skipper Shubman Gill made sure to keep his spirits up anytime he seemed to trouble the hosts.

The pinnacle of Gill and Reddy's interactions arrived on the second ball of the 16th over, with Joe Root on strike. The veteran tried to charge down the right-arm pacer but Reddy saw him coming and hit the deck short and wide of off-stump, taking Root aback as he coyly lifted his bat only for the Dukes to seam away from him into Rishabh Pant's gloves. Gill was ecstatic at the sight of his rival's main batter getting beaten so emphatically and promptly screamed out, "Bagundhi ra mama [nicely done, brother]," the Telugu remark meant to further spur on Reddy.

Twitter was quick to praise the communication skills of the Indian captain in a team full of personalities from different parts of the country.

Bavundhi ra mama says GILL!😍👌

Waaahh anna wahhhh!

Yes ra mowa!

Crazy!

Hahaha!

True that!

Next level kick!

Clean!

Best!