England head coach Chris Silverwood has on Friday (February 26) admitted that India played better cricket than his team on the challenging surface in the recent day-night Test, but said the tourists expected the pitch to hold on a little longer than it did at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
This week, the first international match played at the world's largest stadium in Ahmedabad, where both India and England team did not reach the score of 200 even after combining both innings and eventually the third Test ended within just two days, thanks to the incredible spin-bowling performances.
Team India defeated England by 10 wickets in the pink-ball Test on the back of stunning display from R Ashwin (7 wickets) and Akshar Patel (11 wickets) to take a 2-1 lead in the ongoing four-match Test series with the fourth and final Test scheduled on March 4 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Amid the heavy criticism from some former players, Silverwood said England was a bit surprised with the Motera pitch after they were bowled out for 112 and 81 in the two innings in the day-night Test. He also rejected talk of lodging any formal complaint to the ICC regarding the Ahmedabad pitch.
Silverwood said in a virtual press conference, “First and foremost, just to follow up from what Joe (Root) said yesterday, he got five for 8. But at the same time, whatever the pitch did or didn't do, India ultimately played better than us on that surface. They probably pushed us to extremes, which our players haven't experienced before. We did expect the wicket to hold up a little longer than it did.”
On being asked if England will lodge a formal complaint to the ICC, the head coach noted: “Listen, we will be talking about certain things behind the scenes. But at the same time, we were really disappointed that we lost with three days of cricket left. We are where we are, from my point of view; it's about heading into the next game and coming out fighting and draw the series.”
He further added, “We have spoken to Javagal (match referee), but it was not about the pitch. I think Joe and I need to have discussions about it really and see where we go from there. We have to accept that we need to get better on these pitches. You look at the first innings, we had an opportunity to score runs and make the best use of the pitch.”
Silverwood also defended England’s team selection for the third Test as they went with just one spinner in Jack Leach with part time spinner captain Joe Root as they felt the Motera pitch would assist the seamers.
He further explained, “Joe Root got 5/8 so the second spinner did fine for us. We did expect the wicket to hold up a little longer than it did. Looking back in history in pink-ball Tests, the ball swung for us, Jimmy (James Anderson) and all got movement during practice. With the experience we had and having two of our bowlers in the top ten in the rankings, we felt with this pink ball, it would have been an opportunity for seamers to make an impact for us.
It's not that we did not think about it, there was logic, we had a look at the stats and how we can use pink ball the best. Root works very hard on his bowling, I am always saying to him that he always under bowls himself. But Joe being Joe, he had to do it this time and he got 5/8.”
Well, England hopes to get a flatter pitch that will suit their gameplan for the final Test against India.
Silverwood signed off by saying, “I would like the pitch in the fourth Test to be a bit flatter, it would suit our gameplan. Yeah, I would like it to be flatter, but we will see what the wicket looks like in the coming days and we will take it from there really.”
(With ANI Inputs)
