Srinagar: Coming back from first Test defeat , India completely dominated England on home soil to claim series 4-1 on Saturday.
In the fifth and final test of the series, India defeated the visitors by an innings and 64 runs at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.
The series win cemented India’s place at the top of the World Test Championship 2023-25 points table with a 38-point lead over second-placed New Zealand.
India now have a 68.51 point percentage with six wins in nine games while England’s point percentage reduced to 17.5 following the abysmal display in the sub-continent.
Earlier today, trailing by 259 in their second innings, England were dismissed for 195 in their second innings on day three of the match.
Joe Root made 84 and Jonny Bairstow (39) threatened to score big but other England batters could not battle it out against India’s top-notch spin attack.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin bagged 5-77 in his 100th Test for a match haul of nine wickets.
This was England’s first series loss under the captaincy of Ben Stokes.
India had resumed their innings at 473-8 earlier today but the home side could add only four runs before losing their last two wickets.
England’s James Anderson became the first pacer to bag 700 Test wickets, when he dismissed Kuldeep Yadav (30).
Yadav bagged the award for player of the match after claiming seven wickets.
“I think, yes [best bowling]. Hard work from the last couple of years, getting the reward. I liked the Zak Crawley wicket. Focusing on the length, landing the ball on a good length. Not thinking about the batter. Length, the pace that I’m bowling and the rhythm. The batting coach helped be a lot, not only the skill aspect but the mental aspect,” said Yadav.
Meanwhile, Stokes said, after the match: “Since the first Test match, we’re man enough to say we’ve been outplayed. We’ve got so much cricket coming up, taking the positives is something I’m looking forward to and driving this team forward.
“There have been small moments when we’ve not been able to wrestle momentum back. It’s about trying to understand those moments and be a bit more relentless.”