After securing the five-match home Test series against the top Test ranked team India by winning the fourth Test at Southampton, English Test captain Joe Root has remarked the victory ‘most enjoyable’.
Since Root has taken the Test captaincy role in February 2017, England’s performances in the longer format haven’t grown up. Though England won the first two home Test series (against South Africa and West Indies) under Root’s captaincy, later the English team suffered the two away Test series defeat in Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to the ongoing five-match home Test series against India, England drew the two-match home Test series against another Asian team Pakistan. Though the current series have one match left yet, England has secured their series victory by leading it 3-1 after winning the fourth Test at Southampton.
After winning the Southampton Test, when Root was asked whether it was the best victory as captain, he replied, “I think it probably has been. It’s definitely been the most enjoyable. I’ve felt very in control of things.”
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On the day four of the fourth Test, England was brilliant on the field. Chasing down the 245 runs target in the fourth innings, India was bundled out for just 184 runs after English bowlers and fielders provided their desperate performances on the field.
Despite the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and the Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane put a crucial 101-run partnership for the fourth wicket, Root was confident to win the encounter at the end.
He said at the end of the game, “We always knew there would be a partnership at some stage and the biggest challenge for us was if we could stay calm and collected and trust that if we stuck to what we wanted to do for long periods, the wicket would do the rest for us. I thought as a group we performed exceptionally well. It was really pleasing that under that pressure, we managed to come good and get over the line.
“When I was batting on it [yesterday], I thought 190 would be a good score but the fact we got beyond 230 was a fantastic effort. I was fairly confident that if we bowled to our potential we’d have enough in the bank to get over the line.”
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Root has praised the English all-rounder Moeen Ali, who made a comeback in the Test squad after around five months and won the Player of the Match award for his game-changing performances. After scoring a crucial 40 runs in the first innings, Ali picked up five-wickets (5/63) during India’s first innings of this Test that denied a big lead for the visitors.
In the fourth innings, Ali bagged four more wickets with the bowling figure of 26-3-71-4, including the dismissals of the set Indian batsmen skipper Virat Kohli (58) and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane (51).
Talking about Ali’s return in Test cricket, Root said, “He’s been brilliant. Sometimes, having some time away from the game can be a really good thing. He’s obviously performed well for his county. Couldn’t be more pleased for him. He’s someone who’s a big part of the dressing room and it’s always really nice when he goes out and performs. He’s such a big part of this team and I think that’s going to be the case going forward.”
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English skipper Joe Root, who was not in the great form with the bat in this Test series, dropped himself down at the no.4 position during England’s second innings of this Test match and scored a crucial 48 runs before unluckily getting run-out. Speaking on that, Root claimed that he favours batting at no.4 position.
Root said, “I’ve always favoured number four, it’s always been the place where I feel I get the best out of myself. If you look at this game, the decision was made purely on the state of the game. That second innings was all about scoring runs, it didn’t matter how we did it, how quickly we did it.”
