England skipper Ben Stokes was proud of the way his spinners fought in the fourth Test, which the team lost, and admitted he “couldn't have asked for anything more”. Young English spinners Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley put in a valiant effort and had India fighting hard for every run as they chased down a modest total to win by five wickets. Bashir claimed back-to-back wickets to reduce the hosts to 120/5 and pull England back into the match.
“I think it was a great Test match. When you see the scoreboard it says India won by five wickets, but it doesn't do justice to the way things unfolded, the ebb and flow on each day. I can just be proud of my team, we have had some inexperienced spinners (Bashir and Hartley) but I am proud of their efforts, they came here without much fame and the way they kept bowling, I can't ask for anything more,” Stokes said after the match.
“Part of my captaincy is allowing the young boys to enjoy themselves and give them the freedom to play in difficult and intimidating conditions in India. I am a huge fan of Test cricket, the number of youngsters playing in both teams makes things nice ready for the future.” of Test cricket. Bashir, what a story, what a journey, taking eight wickets, including a 5-fer against India, after hardly playing any cricket, is fantastic. You want to win series, you want to play and win cricket matches. Stokes added.
England's demise in the Test came on Day 3, when Ravichandran Ashwin completely knocked England out of the match and restricted them to a score of 145.
Speaking about that period, Stokes admitted that it was difficult to deal with the quality of India's three-star spinners.
“If you look yesterday, anything was possible, it was incredibly difficult to bat against the spinners (Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep), scoring became difficult and so did rotating the strike. We knew the pitch wasn't going to get any better as we saw today. I don't think the criticism of Joe Root was fair, the sheer amount of cricket he has played, 12,000 Test runs. He is incredible. I have been here for a few years (as captain) and my message is Simple. All I can say is that we left nothing on the pitch, we fought hard and I'm happy with that,” said Stokes.
On Day 4, Dhruv Jurel and Shubman Gill put on a 72-run stand to pull the hosts out of a tight spot and steer India to victory. India have clinched the series and are now leading 3-1 with one Test remaining to be played between the two teams.
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