The English skipper, Joe Root has urged his batsmen to be “braver” and to free themselves from fear in the fourth and final Test against India starting on Thursday. The visiting team has suffered heavy defeats in the past two matches — by 317 runs in Chennai and 10 wickets in a chastening two-day finish in Ahmedabad — but can still have a chance of drawing the series 2-2.

Ever since Root’s double century in the series opener paved the way for a score of 578 and a landmark win, England has struggled against spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel. Root and his men have been bowled out for 134, 164, 112, and 81 but he wants his team to stop being paralyzed by worry and try to land a few more blows of their own.

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Explaining the same, Joe Root said, “We’ve got all the ingredients, all the pieces and all the skills to exploit and succeed in these conditions. It is important we harness that, have it in the front of our mind and be a bit braver actually, play with a little bit more freedom. That doesn’t mean going out there and trying to slog it, or be ultra-aggressive — we need to play our game a certain way but it is about not being scared of the conditions.”

The skipper wants each player to have some trust in their chosen methods in the Test, also being held in Ahmedabad.

Elaborating the same, Root explained, “Everyone’s idea of what fearless is is slightly different. But being fearless is not having that tentative mentality of being trapped on the crease or being caught in two minds. They have to have the freedom to feel like they can go and play, trust their games to go and score runs.”

Off-spinner Dom Bess looks likely to feature in the playing XI as he was earlier replaced by Moeen Ali, only to be overlooked again when the latter flew back home. Root also acknowledged that the decision to invest heavily in seamers for the day/night Test in Ahmedabad was an error of judgment and appears ready to hand Bess another chance.

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Talking about Bess, Root said, “I think if the pitch looks anything like the last one, he’ll be licking his lips at the opportunity. You look at the side for the last match and we got that wrong, we read the pitch wrong in terms of the way we selected the team.”