– but overall this series has not been a thrashing like the two that preceded it.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nEngland have got closer to India.<\/span><\/p>\nThey made India think by battling admirably again on day four, especially considering their spinners came into this series with minimal expectation to perform given their inexperience.<\/span><\/p>\nYes, they have lost a series for the first time during Stokes’ captaincy tenure and have squandered opportunities, but in Shoaib Bashir they have a 20-year-old off-spinner who looks the real deal.<\/span><\/p>\nPlaying in just his second Test, Bashir – previously released by Surrey and with only six first-class matches under his belt before this call-up – took 3-79 in India’s second innings, to go with his maiden five-wicket haul in the first.<\/span><\/p>\nOn day two he showed his stamina and ability to continue to spin the ball hard through a marathon 31-over spell. That was impressive enough.<\/span><\/p>\nBut bowling in the fourth innings with your side defending a small target is a highly pressurised situation.<\/span><\/p>\nEvery run hurts and you see the number of runs required ticking down on the scoreboard. It can force you to search for wickets and actually deliver more poor balls. <\/span><\/p>\nDespite only making his first-class debut last year, Bashir did not do any of that. <\/span><\/p>\nHe has a nice, high action – one that can’t really go wrong – and is accurate.<\/span><\/p>\nStokes has spoken about first spotting him on social media in a clip of his performance for Somerset in the County Championship. Whoever is responsible for plucking him out deserves a lot of credit because Bashir looks a very promising young spinner.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>Ben Stokes on England defeat in fourth Test<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI was also impressed by the attitude I saw from England’s players on the fourth day.<\/span><\/p>\nThey were on the back of a 434-run defeat but at the end I didn’t see heads dropping. They kept going and had smiles on faces even when losing. <\/span><\/p>\nPeople might think it doesn’t matter but it shows a very healthy spirit in that dressing room.<\/span><\/p>\nUltimately the Test was lost in the third innings when England were bowled out for 145.<\/span><\/p>\nLike in Rajkot they got their noses in front but could not take advantage. <\/span><\/p>\nIn the previous Test it was because of their ultra-aggressive approach. That was not to blame this time, but it was another key moment that England failed to take advantage of. <\/span><\/p>\nIndia impress without Kohli, Pant & Bumrah<\/h3>\n On day four, with India five wickets down needing 72 more runs, the match was in the balance again but Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel responded by batting calmly and serenely. They did not play desperate shots and strolled over the line. <\/span><\/p>\nThat is the way you need to play in India. You need to play a canny game and India have done so throughout. <\/span><\/p>\nThey did not need to take the gamble they did in preparing such a difficult batting pitch – a surface which, in the end, stayed on the right side of the line in terms of what is suitable for Test cricket and produced an entertaining encounter – and on it lost what looked a crucial toss. <\/span><\/p>\nStill they managed to come back and win. <\/span><\/p>\nThat showed their resilience and what should please India fans most is that, despite all of the power of the Indian Premier League, two players who have developed on a diet of so much T20 cricket in Gill and Jurel knuckled down to get India over the line. <\/span><\/p>\nThem winning the series, given the players they are missing, is a fine effort. It highlights their incredible depth.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>India v England: Rohit Sharma praises his young side after Test series win<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe hosts have been without Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Shami for the entirety while KL Rahul has been injured since the series opener and Jasprit Bumrah was rested here. Even Ravichandran Ashwin had to miss more than a day of play in the third Test for personal reasons. <\/span><\/p>\nAll of the talk in India is about the superstar Pant but in Jurel they look to have found a fine wicketkeeper.<\/span><\/p>\nIn his second Test, he was terrific with the gloves and looked an excellent batsman.<\/span><\/p>\nSarfaraz Khan is another. He may have got a first-baller to Bashir in the second innings but has a lot of shots. <\/span><\/p>\nOpener Yashasvi Jaiswal, of course, looks a sensational player with his two double centuries and 655 runs in total in the series. <\/span><\/p>\nIt will be interesting to see how he fares overseas when the ball moves around but he is very exciting – a modern Test player.<\/span><\/p>\nEngland have performed better than we might have hoped but India need to be given a lot of credit for the way they have covered the losses of key players. <\/span><\/p>\nAs it stands, 3-1 is a very fair scoreline on the play we have seen.<\/span><\/p>\nThe final Test in Dharamsala could swing how we remember the series.<\/span><\/p>\nJonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport’s Matthew Henry.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bashir dismissed Ravindra Jadeja and Sarfaraz Khan in consecutive balls after lunch to reduce India to 120-5 but Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel took the hosts to victory While defeat in Ranchi condemned England to a third-successive Test series defeat in India, Ben Stokes’ side should not be too disappointed. Last week’s defeat in Rajkot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14212,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210\/revisions\/14212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}