England coach Chris Silverwood has acknowledged that Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel with a combined 59 wickets were hot to handle for the English batsmen during the recently concluded four-match series in which the visiting team lost 1-3. Having started off with a big win on a flat deck in Chennai, the visiting batsmen succumbed to Ashwin (32 wickets) and Axar (27 wickets) clinically decimated the English batsmen who were more troubled by the straighter deliveries.
During a virtual press meet, Chris Silverwood said, “It’s (59 wickets from four matches) probably a true reflection as well. It was difficult. They made life very hard for us, hard to get first innings runs which is something that we obviously try and pride ourselves on and something we’re working hard towards that. But they made life very tough.”
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Unlike a lot of former cricketers turned English pundits, who have come hard on the pitch conditions, Silverwood said that it’s only fair to accept that they were completely outplayed in the last three Tests.
Explaining the same, England’s batting coach said, “They outplayed us in their conditions. I’m going to give a lot of credit to the Indians. They came back hard after that first test. We expected them to but they came back very hard. It’s going to hurt for a while. And obviously, probably reflecting some talking going on between the players and the various coaches, but hopefully, we’ll pull the positives out of it and learn from it and that will make them stronger moving forward.”
Looking ahead to the coveted Ashes in Australia later this year, Silverwood was of the opinion that they would learn would help in the long run.
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Chris Silverwood explained, “When you start heading somewhere, there’s always gonna be a few bumps in the road. The experience they will gain from this will be really valuable down the line,” he said. Asked how much damaging would it be realistically ahead of the Ashes, he said: “It will alter our outlook and what we’re trying to achieve now. It’ll just go down as an experience and help galvanize the side really. We’ve got some very fine young players in that side.
