England on Monday was handed their first Test series loss in the Bazball era when India triumphed over them in the IND vs ENG 4th Test. After losing the first Test, India came back to win the next three emerge victorious in the series with a match to spare. Stokes, after the IND vs ENG 4th Test in Ranchi, refused to blame the Indian pitches for their series loss, claiming the pitches for the four Tests were ‘very good’.
England needed a win in the IND vs ENG 4th Test to avoid a series loss. England started the Ranchi Test well, gaining an upper hand in the first two days. However, a resilient Indian tail along with youngster Dhruv Jurel shone in India’s first innings to close the gap on England’s 353. From then on, the Indian bowlers were all over the England team as Ravichandran Ashwin claimed a fifer and Kuldeep Yadav had a 4-wicket haul to bowl England out for 145 runs in their 2nd innings.
India needed 192 to win the 4th Test match and the series. Although India lost a few quick wickets on the 4th day, Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel partnered to help India towards a fantastic series win.
While there were a lot of talks regarding how the Indian pitches would hold up, the England team let themselves down more than the pitches. England skipper Ben Stokes after the match said the exact same thing, claiming they have no complaints regarding the pitches in spite of the series loss.
“Very surprised how this pitch held itself together. But pitches in all four Tests have been good. No complaints, wickets have been very good and have produced four results,” Ben Stokes said at the post-match press conference.
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