England just succumbed to pressure, feels Swann

Batting first after winning a good toss, England were bowled out for 218 on a flat deck on the opening day of the fifth and final Test against India here.

New Delhi: It was not plain capitulation. Rather, England succumbed to the pressure of standing up to a world-class band of Indian spinners at the “absolute top of their game”, feels former spinner Graeme Swann.

Batting first after winning a good toss, England were bowled out for 218 on a flat deck on the opening day of the fifth and final Test against India here.

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Doing the bulk of the damage was the spin of Kuldeep Yadav (5/72) and Ravichandran Ashwin (4/51). Asked what could have led to England’s downfall, Swann told PTI Videos, “Well you got to look at like I say you have got world-class spinners at the absolute top of their game.

“So I don’t think it’s a capitulation from England, just succumbing to the pressure maybe, so there’s two ways of looking at it. “England certainly knows they can do better but for India, you should be championing the fact that you have got an absolute world-beater at the moment, and he is bowling like a dream.”

India finished Day 1 at 135 for one with skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill going strong after Yashasvi Jaiswal’s blazing fifty. Summing up, Swann called it a “disappointing” day for England.

“Disappointing day at the end of it, it started so well, with the ball sort of swinging and seaming around so lavishly. To not lose any wickets in that early spell was brilliant from England’s point of view,” said the 44-year-old former England spinner.

“But then they came up against Kuldeep who is in rich form at the moment and he was just too good for them. “At the end of the day, so very disappointing after winning the toss on a good pitch but then finding yourself in such a weak position at the end of day one, it’s been a bad day for England.”

While India have done extremely well to win the ongoing series, when asked about their chances in the upcoming T20 World Cup, Swann picked them as one of the strong favourites.

“Look, India is always going to have a massive chance at the T20 World Cup, you know the IPL is the home of T20 cricket basically and you have got some incredible players, it’s about time someone knocked Australia off the world champion perch as well.

“If it’s not England I hope it’s India,” Swann said.