AHMEDABAD – England captain Joe Root said the 10-wicket defeat inside two days does not define his team, and promised to bounce back after the comprehensive loss to India in the third test on Thursday.
On a turning track that Root described as "challenging", England managed 112 in their first innings and were shot out for 81, their lowest against India, in the second.
All 10 English batsmen fell to spin in an abject second- innings batting capitulation.
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"A week like this doesn't define us as a team," Root said after England's second successive defeat dashed their hopes of making the final of the inaugural World Test Championship in June.
"We know what we're capable of doing and we'll come back and use the hurt of this week as motivation going into that last game."
Root was particularly upset how England threw away a decent start in the first innings after winning a crucial toss.
"Having won the toss and batted first, we felt like we got ourselves in a pretty good position there and we just didn't capitalise on it," Root said.
"You get to that sort of position, you really want to make it count. Had we even got 250 on that wicket, that would have been a really good score."
A very disappointing day as India took a 2-1 series lead.#INDvENG
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) February 25, 2021
Thirty wickets fell in two days, including 17 in Tuesday's final two sessions.
Root claimed his maiden five-wicket haul to drag England back into the contest by dismissing India for 145.
Their batting, however, let them down again as Indian spinners Axar Patel and Ravichandran Aswin ran amok as the ball spun viciously.
"It sums up the wicket up slightly," Root said. "If I'm getting five wickets on there then you can tell it is giving a fair amount of spin.
"It's nice to contribute but disappointing it's in a losing cause."
Ahmedabad also hosts the fourth and final test starting on March 4.
Reuters