NOTTINGHAM: England were thrashed by 203 runs in the third Test at Trent Bridge, and their captain Joe Root thinks they could improve across the board ahead of a now pivotal fourth Test in Hampshire.
Speaking after play on day five, when India took just 17 balls to wrap up England’s last wicket, Root acknowledged that though his side have been excellent with the ball thus far, their performance in this game, in which India registered their first two scores of above 300 this series, was a slight drop-off, an ICC report on Wednesday said.
“It was always going to be a difficult decision [at the toss],” said Root.
“There was some live grass on the wicket. We were performing extremely well with the ball, and potentially could have bowled them out quickly.”
“We could have bowled a bit fuller, but that’s nitpicking. India batted extremely well on that first day. We’ve generally bowled well at him [Kohli], he’s not scored too quickly against us, but he’s found ways to score runs,” he said.
With the bat, England’s struggles were more obvious, as they lost 10 wickets in a session to succumb to 161 in the first innings. In the second innings however, there were signs of improvement.
“I think it’s fair to say we underperformed in our first innings” said Root.
“The second-innings partnership between Jos and Ben was a lesson to us, the way they adapted to the situation, how clear they looked about how they were going to score their runs.
We need to look at that and see how we can adapt our own games to score 400 in the first innings.”
“The best thing about [Buttler’s innings] is that he can crash the ball to all parts, but the thing about him is how he can look at a situation and work out how to play.” He said. (UNI)
