Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], March 7 (ANI): After losing the Test series against India, England coach Chris Silverwood praised opposition’s spinners Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin saying the duo made life very hard for them.
Team India on Saturday roared into the final of the inaugural edition of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) following an emphatic 3-1 series win over England.
Virat Kohli’s men, who defeated England in the fourth and final Test by an innings and 25 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, will now face New Zealand in the WTC final slated to be played from June 18 to 22, with June 23 as the reserve day at the iconic Lord’s Stadium in London.
Ashwin finished the four-match series against England with a tally of 32 wickets and he picked up his eighth Man of the Series award. Axar, on the other hand, claimed 27 wickets in the series.
“They (Ashwin and Axar) made life very hard for us… India outplayed us and they deserve a lot of credit. They came back hard after the first Test,” Silverwood said during a virtual press conference.
India finished as the number one team with 72.2 percentage points in the WTC points table, the factor that determined the final placings rather than total points won, following a change to the points system owing to the Covid-19 disruption.
England had won the first Test against India but the hosts were quick to bounce back from the defeat and won the next three games.
Silverwood also said: “We came here wanting to win this. We went hard in the first Test and won it and then India came back hard in the last three Tests. It is a very difficult place to come and win. Time and time again, history tells us that and not just for England but for other teams as well.” (ANI)