England captain Joe Root on Wednesday said that the pitch for the fourth and the final Test against India looks similar to the one which was used for the pink-ball Test. The third match in Ahmedabad witnessed an epic collapse of the English batting, especially in the second innings as Joe Root & Co registered their lowest Test score ever (83) against India.
As a result, the day-night Test ended within two days and India took a 2-1 lead after thumping the tourists by 10 wickets. The outcome of the pink-ball Test further fuelled the raging pitch debate as several former English cricketers slammed the Ahmedabad track.
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Ahead of the final face-off in whites, Root stated that it’s better to learn lessons from the last two games and come back strong.
“It's (the pitch) looking very similar...I think the most important thing is that we learn all the lessons from the last two test matches and make sure we're back for it. It's important that if we get ourselves in a similar position in the first innings, we really make that count. And try and get some scoreboard pressure in the game, you know, early on,” Root said during the pre-match virtual press-conference.
Root mentioned that English batsmen will look to build partnerships to put a significant score on the board if they get a similar track this time.
{{/usCountry}}Root mentioned that English batsmen will look to build partnerships to put a significant score on the board if they get a similar track this time.
{{/usCountry}}“I think that as batters if you don’t score runs, you will always look at yourselves, you'll always try and find ways to improve and we’ve certainly done that. We've looked at a couple of dismissals and how we're going to find ways of building big partnerships and getting some significant scores on it if it is a similar surface this time around,” he added.
India need to either draw or win the match to find a place in the World Test Championships final in June. On the other hand, a win for England can still spoil the party for India with a win in Ahmedabad and pave way for Australia.