England coach Chris Silverwood praised Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, stating the spin duo made life “very hard” for the visitors, who lost the series 3-1 in India.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel combined to claim 59 English wickets as the Joe Root-led side squandered a 1-0 advantage and suffered three back-to-back defeats.
Chris Silverwood: The Duo Of Ravichandran Ashwin And Axar Patel Made Life Difficult For England
With a win in the final Test, India roared into the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which will be held in England in June.
“They (Ashwin and Axar) made life very hard for us… India outplayed us, and they deserve a lot of credit. They came back hard after the first Test,” Chris Silverwood said during a virtual press conference.
With 32 wickets and a century in the series, Ravichandran Ashwin went on to bag his eighth man of the series Trophy. Ravichandran Ashwin was the leading wicket-taker with 32 scalps in 4 Tests averaging 14.72 in the recently concluded 4 Test series against England.
Ravichandran Ashwin lifted his batting and scored his fifth Test hundred in the 2nd Test at Chennai on a pitch that was the subject of intense criticism. For his all-around effort (32 wickets and 189 runs), Ravichandran Ashwin walked away with the Man of the Series award
Chris Silverwood: India Outplayed England And India Should Be Credited
Many former England cricketers blasted pitches used for the final three Tests but Chris Silverwood believes it’s fair to credit the Indians and accept that the hosts outplayed them.
“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,” added Chris Silverwood, who played 6 Tests and 7 ODIs for England between 1996 and 2002.
“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.”
Having crashed out of the WTC final, England’s subsequent Test assignments will be a long summer at home against New Zealand and India. They also play the Ashes at the end of the year.
Axar Patel, playing in just his second Test, scalped 11 wickets in the 3rd day-night Test at Ahmedabad to spin a web over the Englishmen. He returned with figures of 6/38 and 5/32 as England was bundled out for 112 and 81 only in the 3rd Test. Axar Patel took 27 scalps in his memorable debut Test series playing only 3 Tests against England. India came back remarkably after losing the first Test both against Australia and England.