Don’t feel too strongly about being critical”: Atherton on England’s performance against India

Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel's unbeaten 72-run stand took India across the finishing line during the tricky chase of 192 runs.

New Delhi: Former England cricketer Michael Atherton feels it is hard to be too “critical” of the Three Lions’ performance against India following their Test series defeat in Ranchi. England rode high in during some phases of the Test match, on the back of strong performances from Joe Root and young spinners Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley.

Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel’s unbeaten 72-run stand took India across the finishing line during the tricky chase of 192 runs.

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“I don’t feel too strongly about being too critical of England. It’s a difficult place to come and win, obviously, with nobody able to do so since 2012/13,” Atherton said on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast.

Atherton went on to state that the series has been competitive from the very first match but India ended up being too good in the home conditions.

“When we were talking about the series before a ball was sent down then I don’t think we expected England to win here, given the relative strength of the spin attack. I feel that it has been a competitive series. I feel like India know they’ve been in the tussle, but in the end they were just too good in home conditions,” Atherton added.

England kicked off the series on a dominant note with a 28-run triumph in Hyderabad. In the following three games, they had their moments of brilliance but failed to capitalise on them. In the fourth Test, Joe Root’s 122* put England in a strong position.

However, in the second innings, Ravichandran Ashwin spun the team with his five-wicket haul and restricted England on 145. “I thought this was a particularly good effort from India to win the Test.

They lost the toss, they were behind on first innings, but they pulled it around. It could conceivably be 4-0 to India because they will feel they should have won that first game in Hyderabad and probably ought to have done,” Atherton said.

“You could also say it could be 2-2 as well because England did win in Hyderabad and threw away a strong position here. Even at Rajkot, I know they ended up losing by a massive margin, but that day three was a similar day three here. I felt that the cricket has been competitive and India know they’ve been in a tussle,” Atherton added.

England will face India in the final match of the series on March 7 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala