After England lost their five-match Test series against India, touring captain Ben Stokes admitted on Saturday that his team were outplayed by the better side in the series that ended 4-1 in favour of the hosts.
Meanwhile, Stokes further admitted that England failed to take advantage of crucial opportunities that could have swung the series in their favor. Despite their aggressive approach, England clinched the series opener at Hyderabad with a 28-run victory however, faltered in the next four games.
“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,” Stokes after the fifth and final match.
“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,” added the England captain.
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Stokes also highlighted the significance of the opening partnership between Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, along with the promising performances of young spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, as encouraging factors for England to carry forward from their tour 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,” he expressed.
Stokes concluded by honoring veteran pacer James Anderson, who reached the milestone of 700 Test wickets during 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,” he added.
