Joe Root, England’s captain, expressed regret on Monday for failing to take a significant first-inning lead after dismissing India for a meagre 191 runs, as well as for dropping a few crucial catches, which cost them the fourth Test.
The home captain, on the other hand, has promised to make a great comeback in the final Test, which begins on September 10 at Old Trafford.
After utilising the circumstances on day two, England had a 99-run lead, but India responded with a massive second innings performance to set the hosts a hard 368-run mark and win by 157 runs.
“We should have got a bigger lead the first time round with the bat. It would have been nice to have another 100 runs actually, and then we’re looking at a very different, very different game,” Root said in the post-match media interaction.
“It’s been frustrating today to lose 10 wickets. But actually where the game is lost, where we could have really stamped authority on things was earlier in the game.”
Root also bemoaned the lost catches, notably one by Rory Burns at slip of second-innings centurion Rohit Sharma, which proved decisive in the end.
“We got to be a little bit more ruthless there, the first innings runs really cost us, as well as catching. We did put down a few chances, some of them were extremely difficult.
“And that has to be said but at the same time you give chances and half chances to world class players. They take them, and we”ve seen that throughout this game.”
As India won the fourth Test by 157 runs to take a 2-1 lead, England fell from 141 for two to 210 all out.
After Haseeb Hameed was dismissed for 63 runs, England lost four wickets for six runs, with Jasprit Bumrah making the ball talk with his unplayable reverse-swing.
“It’s disappointing and frustrating, especially with the opportunity to go with a Test match to be bowled out is hard to take.
“But also you’ve got to look at how we responded from the Lord’s and the performance we put in at Headingley,” he said referring to their series-levelling win in the previous Test.
“We’ve got a look to do exactly the same when we go to the Old Trafford. We are very confident as we’ve just recently shown we can we”re more than capable of turning things around very quickly.
“We’re going to make sure that we get ourselves in a frame of mind over the next couple of days to do just that. There is every confidence that we can go to Old Trafford and get a win.”
The skipper had to contend with a number of injuries, including those to pace combo Jofra Archer and Stuart Broad, as well as all-rounder Ben Stokes, who has taken a “indefinite hiatus” from cricket.
In such a situation, veteran pacer James Anderson has taken up a significant amount of the workload.
“We’ll have to look at things,” he said when asked whether he would consider rotation. “We’ll see how everyone pulls up over the next couple of days and we’ll be trying to make wise judgments around that.”
“It’s been frustrating in terms of having abundant resources to contend with a lot of injuries. So now I have to try and manage that, as well as we can and make sure that we’ve got an attack that can take 20 wickets. It’s a delicate balancing act, one that we will try and make sure we get right,” he said.
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