: India’s head coach Rahul Dravid during a training session ahead of the fifth Test cricket match between India and England, in Dharamshala, on March 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI
With the series done and dusted, it was time for coach Rahul Dravid and England’s skipper Ben Stokes, here on Saturday, to reflect on the five-Test series.
After India’s emphatic innings-and-64-run victory on the third day, Dravid shared his views.
“We dominated this match. We were in control here all the way. But the first four Tests, there were periods when they did put us under a little bit of pressure.”
“There were days, particularly the third day in both Rajkot and in Ranchi, when England had the ascendancy in the morning. The heartening thing for me was how well our experienced players stepped up in those situations. England came here with an experienced batting line-up. Their inexperience was in bowling. Their experience was in the batting and they had the ascendancy with bat in hand at that point of time and we needed to respond. Our experience was in bowling and we won those contests. That was a critical part of the series.”
On his part, Stokes said, “We came here with very high hopes and confidence about what we could achieve.
“It started off very well but obviously losing the series 4-1, not just myself but the team is big enough to say we’ve been completely outplayed in the last four games. “The way I look at it is that the big games and moments, the team who seizes those opportunities and make those moments theirs are the team that are going to come out on top.
Whenever we managed to wrestle back any type of momentum with the ball or bat, India were always able to then put it back on to us.”
“That was where the Tests, after the first one, were won and lost. It’s obviously very disappointing. I don’t give too much away as the series is going on but I’m always man enough to say we got beaten by the better team.”