The similarities to the Lord’s defeat and the one at Oval are too close to comfort for the English team. In a glaringly similar loss, England once again went on to lose on the final day from a winning position. The middle order of the England team folding without putting up a substantial fight has been a theme for a couple of series now, and that has to be a huge point of concern for the team management.
The English team lost four of its middle-order wickets in just six runs and skipper Joe Root feels it’s frustrating to lose this way. But what’s more frustrating for Root is how his team has given away opportunities one after another, failing to make the most of them.
“I think, actually, where the game is lost - where we could really stamp out authority on things was earlier in the game. I think we should have gotten a bigger lead the first time around," said the teary-eyed English captain.
"It would have been nice to have another 100 runs, actually. And then we're looking at a very different game,” Root further added in the post-match press conference after a 157 run defeat in the fourth Test at Oval.
England were once 100 without loss with more than 80 overs to be bowled and only 267 runs needed. Some people even thought that they might go on to chase the target down considering the flatness of the wicket. However, from 100 for none, they slumped to 147-6 and win was suddenly out of the question and it was more about survival.
Speaking about the attitude of the team, the 30-year-old skipper said, "We've got to be a little bit more ruthless with those first innings runs and with our catches, although some of them were extremely difficult.”
Root then went on to give a certain hypothesis of how the team would have approached the match if they were not to lose as many wickets as they did. "Unfortunately we couldn't quite take it deep enough and that was a wonderful spell of bowling that really turned the game. They got the ball reversing nicely and they took advantage of it, and we just didn't have the right answers which are slightly frustrating,’ he said.
“Turning up today with the opportunity to go and win a Test match and then to be bowled out is hard to take for the lads in the changing room,” the skipper added, but not before warning that a comeback was around the corner when they reach Manchester.
“We'll look at how we responded from Lord's and the performance we put in at Headingley. We're going to look to do exactly the same at Old Trafford," he said.
The two teams will now take on each other in the last match of the series at Old Trafford starting September 10. With this win at Oval, India lead the five-match series 2-1.