England head coach Chris Silverwood admitted India is a very tough place to come and win the series, saying nobody likes losing, but they will reap rewards down the line of the experience after his team suffered a 1-3 Test series defeat at the hands of Team India on Saturday (March 6).
He further admitted that Indian spinners R Ashwin and Akshar Patel with a combined 59 wickets made the lives of England batsmen miserable in the recent four-match Test series in India while saying the series loss will “hurt” his team for some time.
England batsmen succumbed to Indian spinners Ashwin (32 wickets) and Akshar (27 wickets), as the two destroyed the tourists’ batting line-up clinically, especially with the straighter deliveries on the turning pitches of Chennai and Ahmedabad to help India clinch the Test series 3-1 at home.
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Silverwood told the British media during a virtual press meet: “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 the 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.”
However, several former cricketers criticized and blamed the pitches used in the series for the result, but the England coach said that it's only fair to accept that the tourists were completely outplayed by the hosts in the recent Test series, but said this crushing defeat will make his team stronger.
Silverwood further added, “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.”
He also stressed that the experience they will gain from this series loss in India will be really valuable ahead of the coveted Ashes in Australia later this year.
The coach continued, “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.”
On being asked how much damaging would it be realistically ahead of the Ashes 2021, Silverwood 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.”
He signed off by saying, “None of us likes losing a series like that, but I think we will reap rewards down the line of the experience. It's a very difficult place to come and win. As we've seen time and time again history tells us up, not just for England but for other countries as well.”
(With PTI Inputs)
