রাঁচি টেস্ট-এ ইংল্যান্ডকে পাঁচ উইকেটে হারিয়ে ভারতের জয়লাভ | পাঁচ টেস্টের সিরিজে 3-1 এগিয়ে ভারত |

SPORT

Ankan Sarkar

2/26/20242 min read

No Kohli for the entire series, no KL Rahul for three Tests, no Jadeja for a Test, no Ashwin for half-a-Test, no Bumrah for the 4th Test - India were deprived of some serious talent and were up against the 'Bazballers' of England, but it's Rohit Sharma's men who've had the last laugh. They'll go to Dharamsala hoping to put the icing on the cake and one of India's prettiest venues will look forward to a fitting finale to what has been a superb Test series. 17th consecutive Test series wins at home for India, they're now only behind Australia's 28. For Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, this is their first series loss and a galling one at that. They do have a chance to bounce back and end their India tour on a good note in Dharamsala. For India, it's all about taking the series by a 4-1 margin. A small break before the two teams meet each other on the 7th in the hills. We'll be back covering each and every bit of action. For now, cheers and bye..

Dhruv Jurel | Player of the Match - I play according to the demands of the situation. The 1st innings, we needed to get runs as well, we knew we had to bat last and so any runs would be vital. I was involved in some partnerships, so credit does go to all those who stayed and added runs. I just saw the ball and then reacted to it, not thinking too far ahead. The conversation was good (with Shubman Gill in the 2nd innings), we just broke it into 10-run sets and started developing the partnership.

Rohit Sharma - It has been a very hard fought series without a doubt and to come on the right side of it at the end of four Test matches feels really good. Really proud of everyone in the dressing room. They were a lot of challenges thrown at us but I thought we responded pretty well. We had different challenges in different Test matches and I thought we were quite composed in what we wanted to achieve and what we wanted to do on the field, very happy. Clearly tells me they (youngsters) want to be here, all the hard work they have done in the past, coming up playing domestic cricket and performing there, coming here it is a big challenge but when I look at them, talk to them and the responses that I get from them is quite encouraging. My job and Rahul Bhai's job is to give them the environment they want to be in and they don't feel too much about going out there and getting the job done, they want to get the job done but there's no point to keep talking about it or reminding them about it because they are very clear in what they want to do. Jurel playing his second Test showed solid composure, calmness and he's got the shots as well to play all around the wicket. The first innings 90 of his was very crucial for us to get close to that England's total and again in the second innings showed lot of maturity, composure along with Gill. It is not pleasing when you miss your key players, but you can do nothing as a group. Those guys (Kohli and Co.) are proven players in every condition and to come in and fill their shoes was not easy for these guys. There was pressure from the outside not inside but I thought they responded very well to all the situations. When you make a mark like that, it holds you in good position to have a long career. Performances like this will motivate them and make sure whenever the opportunity comes they are ready for it. We turn up for every Test wanting to win no matter what has happened in the past. Obviously this has been a great series but we want to make sure we turn up for that (Dharamsala Test) game and put our best foot forward. Some of these guys were not used to playing a 5-match series but they have showed a lot of calmness and composure. I am confident we will put up the same show as the last three Test matches.

Ben Stokes - I think it was a great Test match. If you see the scoreboard, it'll say India won by 5 wickets, but it doesn't give credit to the way things unfolded, the ebbs and flows on every single day it happened. I can only be proud of my team, we 've had some inexperienced spinners (Bashir and Hartley), but I'm proud of their efforts, they came here without a lot of exposure and the way they kept bowling, I can't ask for anything more. Part of my captaincy is allowing the young guys to revel and the freedom to play in some difficult and intimidating conditions in India. I am a massive Test cricket fan, the numbers of youngsters coming along in both teams sets things up nicely for the future of Test cricket. If you look yesterday, anything was possible, it was incredibly difficult batting against the spinners (Ashwin, Jadeja and Kuldeep), scoring became difficult and so was rotating the strike. We knew the pitch wouldn't get any better, as we saw today. I don't think the criticism of Joe Root has been fair, the sheer amount of cricket he's played, got 12,000 Test runs. He's incredible. So is Bashir, what a story, what a journey, taking 8 wickets including a 5-fer against India after having hardly played a lot of cricket is superb. You want to win series, you want to play and win cricket matches. I've been here for a couple of years (as captain) and my message is simple. The only thing I can say is we left nothing on the field, we've fought hard and I'm happy with that.

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