Not many teams have put India in trouble in India in Tests. But England with their new approach not only put India in tough spots over and over again in the IND vs ENG Test series, they were close to winning in many situations. Even as Bazball falls short with Rohit Sharma & Co sealing the series 3-1, England captain Ben Stokes is proud of his team for the way they fought.
“I think it was a great Test match. If you see the scoreboard, it’ll say India won by 5 wickets. But it doesn’t give credit to the way things unfolded. I can only be proud of my team. We’ve had some inexperienced spinners. But I’m proud of their efforts,” Ben Stokes said at the end of IND vs ENG 4th Test. India won by 5 wickets.
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Youngsters shine
Coming into the IND vs ENG Test series, not many gave a chance to a rookie spin attack a chance. They had two debutants and a one-Test old spinner in Rehan Ahmed. The experienced Jack Leach was ruled out after suffering a knee injury.
But Tom Hartley bagged a 7-fer on debut. Shoaib Bashir scalped 8 wickets in his 2nd Test, outshining three experienced spinners of India. That’s where Ben Stokes succeeded despite pundits not giving them much credit.
“Part of my captaincy is allowing the young guys to revel and the freedom to play in some difficult conditions in India. I am a massive Test cricket fan, the numbers of youngsters coming along in both teams sets things up nicely for the future. If you look yesterday, anything was possible, it was incredibly difficult against the spinners, we knew the pitch wouldn’t get any better, as we saw today,” Ben Stokes said.
