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'Rishabh Pant can make things interesting in one session,' Joe Root explains why England did not declare innings
India vs England: England captain Joe Root admitted that he did not declare innings keeping Rishabh Pant's abilities in mind.
England cricket team faced a lot of flak for being defensive on Day 4 of the first Test against India. Despite bowling India all out for 337, England decided to not enforce follow-on. India were short by 241 runs, but the visitors decided to set them a target.
England also were quite slow in scoring runs, instead of trying to go for big shots and get quick runs on the board before declaring. Eventually, the visitors were bowled out for 178, setting India a target of 420.
Speaking after winning the first Test by 227 runs, England skipper Joe Root explained that he decided not to declare the innings because he did not want his team to be in a situation where they are needed to contain runs and take wickets as well. Root added that Rishabh Pant was a particular player in his mind who he believes can turn things around in one session.
Also read: 'Thought he was playing in the IPL': Jack Leach on bowling to Rishabh Pant
"We could have declared earlier, for sure, we could have. I wanted to make sure that there were only two results possible in this game. I wanted to make sure that we turned up today with the ball still being hard. We wanted to give our bowlers an extra bit of time to be raring to go," Root told reporters at the virtual press conference, according to news agency ANI.
"We wanted to get to 400 and then we wanted to press the accelerator. Actually, it was going to be really important that we had runs on the board as it was a fast outfield," he added.
"Rishabh Pant bats for one session and he can make things quite interesting. I did not want the pressure of having to contain and as well as take wickets. I wanted to make sure that the bowlers were concentrating on the ways of finding the wickets on that surface.
"We were always going to create ten chances, we just had to be disciplined and take the chances that came our way. We could have declared earlier, I am just glad how it has turned out," he further said.
Speaking on the match, Root said: "The toss was going to be important. From that point, it was crucial that we made the most of batting first on that wicket. We played fantastic cricket, we were in control of the game and the guys were exceptional today in particular.
"It will give us confidence going into the series. I think Anderson seems to get better with time. Those fitness levels are right up there, it is probably the best he has ever been in his whole career.
"This is certainly a very good victory. But in the scheme of this series, we know it's just a start. We know India is a very good team and they are a very proud nation, they have some exceptional players.
"They will come hard at us but to be sitting 1-0 up, it's really good. Really proud of how we played this week, there are some areas we can improve on," he signed off.
