“We are one-all, and very excited about that because of how well we played in the first game”
“We’ve got to find a way of scoring runs in these conditions, finding ways of building pressure for long periods of time with the ball”
Joe Root has urged England to learn their lessons quickly following a chastening defeat in the second Test against India in Chennai. England collapsed to 164 all out in their second innings shortly after lunch on day four, as India wrapped up a crushing 317-run victory, their largest win by runs in Tests between the two sides.
The deficit would have been greater still but for a brief flurry of 43 from 18 balls from Moeen Ali at No. 9, but having made only 134 in their first innings, England amassed fewer runs in the match (298) than India’s two highest scorers, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin, who made 306 runs between them, including a century apiece.
“We were outplayed in all three departments this week,” Root told the official broadcaster after the game. “It’s a bit of an education. We’ve got to learn from this because sometimes these are the conditions that you come up against.
“We’ve got to find a way of scoring runs in these conditions, finding ways of building pressure for long periods of time with the ball, and in bowling six balls at one batter. Credit to India, they made that very difficult for us.
“There’s a few guys that haven’t played a lot in this part of the world. So we got to learn quickly and I think that’s one thing that we’ve done quite well in the recent time, so hopefully we can take that into the rest of this series”
Joe Root
After losing an important toss, England were pushed on to the defensive from the outset thanks to a masterful initiative-seizing innings from Sharma, whose first-day 161 included 80 runs in the first session alone. By the time England’s turn came to bat on the second day, India’s total of 329 already looked daunting.
“On day one, we could have probably been a little bit tighter and squeezed the game a little bit more, restricted them and made it a little bit harder for them to score as freely as they did,” Root admitted. “And then, with the bat, it was obviously quite a challenging wicket from day two onwards, but we’re going to have to be quite smart about how we’re going to score runs out here, how we’re going to build an innings, and we’ve got to learn from the opposition who played very well in these conditions.”
The result was quite the comedown after England’s 227-run victory – their match aggregate of 298 was their lowest since the Edgbaston Test against West Indies in 1995, and their second-lowest in Asia behind the Mumbai Test in 1981-82.
However, Root insisted that England were still very much in contention with two Tests to play, including the unknown quantity of the day-night Test at Ahmedabad next week, which will be played with a pink SG ball.
“We are one-all in the series, with two very important games to come and we’re very excited about that because of how well we played in the first game,” Root said. “We’re very much in the series. [The day-night Test] will be very different. We’ve only played two pink-ball games, one in Australia with a Kookaburra, one in England with the Dukes, so it’ll be different again, I’m sure, but it’s an exciting opportunity to play at what looks like a fantastic venue.
“Day-night cricket offers something different again, so we are very much looking forward to that. We’ll have a little bit of a break now to refresh and have a look at a few things, but it’s exciting times.
“It’s just very important that we stay level as a team,” he added. “We’ve got to stay very level, and understand that we’ve played a lot of very good cricket in the recent past. We performed well last week, but we got to learn the lessons. There’s a few guys that haven’t played a lot in this part of the world. So we got to learn quickly and I think that’s one thing that we’ve done quite well in the recent time, so hopefully we can take that into the rest of this series.”
Source: ESPN Crickinfo