"joe-root"

"We know he is a fantastic player and he has got a fantastic record in particular, so it is going to be a great challenge to come up against him,” said Root.

A lot of sides will look at that series that happened in Australia and take huge amounts of confidence from it. Huge credit to India for going there and winning. It is a very difficult place to win.

The International Cricket Council announced the nominees for the inaugural Player of the Month Awards which will "recognise and celebrate the best performances from both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket throughout the year".

Some of the Indian players and members of the support staff also landed in this southern city, airport sources said.

The world body said the awards will recognise the best performances of both male and female cricketers across all forms of international cricket throughout the year.

India would be entering the Test series riding high on confidence following their remarkable win in the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia.

On Sunday, Root played a 186-run knock, with the help of 18 boundaries, during England's first innings in the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Galle International Stadium.

At stumps on day three, England's score reads 339/9, still trailing the hosts by 42 runs

England are still 283 runs behind with eight wickets in hand

England ensured it didn't have any more hiccups in erasing the remaining 36 required on the last day after Sri Lanka had set up a tricky 74-run target on a turning wicket.

Root's 228 had provided England a strong total of 421 and a meaningful first innings lead of 286, but Thirimanne stood firm for two sessions to remain unbeaten on 76 off 189 balls

England were 320 for four when rain halted play in Galle

Joe Root's team will immediately go into a secure bubble on their arrival which comes two days after authorities deployed top military officers to help contain coronavirus cases

The cricketers, who are confined to their rooms in hotels, took to social media for killing the time. Smith too took to his handle on Instagram, he asked his fans to pose questions and owed to answer them.

For ODI Player of the Decade, Kohli, Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Mitchell Starc (Australia), de Villiers, Rohit Sharma (India), MS Dhoni (India), and Sangakkara have been nominated

Kohli is probably the most complete player out of the three of them across formats. His ability to chase things down in the limited-overs format and to pace it as well as he does as often as he does and be not out at the end is extraordinary, says Root