The Indian cricket team stamped their authority in the final contest of a five-match Test series against England, claiming a commanding 4-1 victory this Saturday. England’s tour, starting on a high with a win in the series opener in Hyderabad, took a dramatic turn as they conceded the third Test in Rajkot by a heavy margin of 434 runs, followed by a crushing defeat by an innings and 64 runs in the picturesque Dharamsala.
This series marked the first loss for England in Test cricket under the captaincy of Ben Stokes, and it halts their buzzword-laden approach, dubbed ‘bazball’, in the longer format of the game. Despite engaging in titanic struggles across the series, England found themselves entirely outclassed in Dharamsala, where India clinched the match, wrapping it up before tea on the third day.
The England skipper confronted the loss head-on, acknowledging that his team was simply outplayed by a superior Indian side throughout the series. While the sting of defeat was palpable, Stokes was quick to assert that the outcome would not change the aggressive ethos of England’s cricket, particularly their approach in Test matches which has worked for them over the last two years.
“Now that the series has come to an end, I don’t give too much away, obviously, whilst the series is going on,” Stokes said in his post-match conversation. “But since the first Test match of the series, we’re man enough and we’re big enough to say that we’ve been outplayed by the better team in the series. We ain’t gonna let the last two years go to waste over this series in isolation.”
The series saw moments where the English team shone, creating flickers of hope for a fightback, yet those moments turned out to be sparse and fleeting. Stokes commended these brief instances of resurgence but lamented the team’s inability to turn them into lasting momentum. Test cricket, particularly on Indian soil, demands a relentless approach, and Stokes highlighted the team’s failure to maintain their edge in critical moments.
“When you look at the game as a whole, and the series as a whole, there’s been really small moments throughout every Test match where we wrestled a bit of momentum back towards us, but we’ve not just been able to maintain and keep that going,” he reflected. “And in Test-match cricket, especially out here where the game can turn really fast on you, it’s about understanding that and trying to understand those moments and being a bit more relentless with it.”
Despite being at the pinnacle of the sport, Stokes hinted at introspection within the squad: “I think we all know as individuals that that’s probably where it’s gone wrong for us, on more than one occasion.”
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Fans and analysts alike have been buzzing about the individual performances that tilted the scales in India’s favor, such as Ravichandran Ashwin’s lethal five-wicket haul and the commanding tons from opening duo Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, combining for a strategic triumph over England.
With this series settled, the points standings in the World Test Championship are once again a topic of discussion, with India’s win causing a shuffle in the rankings.
And as speculation mounts over the longevity of players’ careers, India captain Rohit Sharma confronted questions on his retirement plans, further fueling the sports media discourse following the conclusion of the England series.
As the dust settles on this monumental clash between the old foes, one thing is clear: the English side, helmed by Ben Stokes, is down but not out. They look to the future with the same firebrand approach to the game, aiming to rectify the slips of this series, with the ever-so-brash ‘bazball’ buzz around the sport undeniably broadcasting a compelling era ahead for Test cricket.
