"England can have no excuses"- Nasser Hussain on the Test series loss against India
Nasser Hussain has urged England not to look for excuses after being soundly beaten in the recently-concluded four-match Test series against India. Apart from getting outplayed, the former skipper said that the visitors also misread playing conditions.
England turned up with a top performance in the first Test in Chennai, winning by 227 runs. However, since then, Joe Root and his men hit a slide. Writing in his column for Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain said that England were no match for India even after winning three of the four tosses in the series.
"England can have no excuses. They've played on three of four different surfaces; they've won three of the four tosses; they've misread conditions, they've rotated their side; and since that first Test match, they've been hammered by 300-odd runs, by 10 wickets and now by an innings and 20-odd runs in this game. India have just completely outplayed them, out-batted and definitely out-spun them; their spinners have been in a different league." wrote Hussain.
On Day 2 of the final Test in Ahmedabad, England were in the game as India were tottering at 146-6. However, the 113 run stand between Washington Sundar and Rishabh Pant knocked the stuffing out of the visitors.
Facing a 160-run first-innings deficit, England crumbled yet again with the bat, managing only 135 runs in the second innings to lose by an innings and 25 runs.
England have to take responsibility for their performances - Nasser Hussain
Nasser Hussain also added that England should not be hiding behind various excuses about the pitch and should take responsibility for the series loss.
"I feel at the end of this series, we're going to give our cricketers a lot of excuses - 'it's county cricket', 'it's rotation', 'it's the pitch', 'it's playing in India' - players have to take responsibility, they're the ones who win or lose Test matches."
Following their series defeat, England missed out on a place in the World Test Championship final. Instead, India will now lock horns with New Zealand in the Lord's final in June.