Dharamshala: After England ended their Test tour of India with a defeat by innings and 64 runs in the fifth and final game at the HPCA Stadium, skipper Ben Stokes admitted that his team were outplayed by the better side in the series that ended 4-1 in favour of the hosts.
Stokes also conceded that England couldn’t capitalise on the small moments which could have been decisive in deciding the outcome of the series. With their attacking style of play, England won the series opener at Hyderabad by 28 runs but went on to lose the next four matches.
“We have been outplayed by the better team of the series. We have so much cricket coming up, so looking forward to it. When you look at the series as a whole, in those small moments we haven’t been able to keep it going. We all know as individuals as to where it all went wrong.”
“When India got on top with the ball a lot of men come around the bat and you got to find ways to keep those guys out of play and you need to be positive enough to take those risks and sometimes it could lead to downfall,” said Stokes after the match ended.
He also counted the opening partnership of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, as well as the emergence of young spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir as positives for England to build upon from the trip to India.
“Crawley and Duckett continuing their partnership at the top and Bashir and Hartley have been really exceptional the whole series and Root coming into form at the backend is really exciting ahead of our summer.”
Stokes signed off by paying tribute to veteran pacer James Anderson, who got his 700th Test scalp in day three’s play at Dharamshala. “Amazing to be on the field with Jimmy. 700 wickets for a seamer is quite phenomenal, from the day he first started being a cricketer to where he is now, the desire and commitment are still there and he is the fittest cricketer I have ever seen.”
(IANS)
