Darren Gough Slams 'Horrendous' England For Their Capitulation Against Ravichandran Ashwin And Axar Patel

Former England fast bowler Darren Gough has slammed the Joe Root-led English team for their appalling display of batsman against India’s spin-duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel in the four-match Test series.

England capitulated in stunning fashion on the third afternoon of the fourth Test as Ashwin and Axar Patel once again ran riot, reaffirming their stranglehold on the visiting team’s batsmen.

Both Axar and Ashwin claimed a five-wicket-haul to ensure that England could not even wipe out the 160-run deficit.

Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin were all over England ever since they came together in the second Test in Chennai.

The extent of domination of the duo over the England batting-unit can be gauged from the fact that the spinners accounted for 59 of the total 80 wickets.

While Ravichandran Ashwin claimed 32 wickets with three five-wicket-hauls, Axar Patel managed 27 scalps which include a record four five-wicket-hauls.

Slamming the visitors for their horrendous display, Darren Gough said that England just didn’t have the skills to counter two high-quality Indian spinners.

“It’s just horrendous, isn’t it? It’s just been a really horrendous game for England. We’ve just not got the skills to cope against the two really high-quality spinners that India have got,” Darren Gough said on TalkSport.

The former England seamer added that the visiting batsmen are not good enough technically when the wicket has a bit in it for the bowlers.

“When there’s been a little bit in the wicket, we’ve just not been good enough technically. We’ve not had the right mindset. We can talk about having a gameplan, but every game the top order is going,” he added.

After their monumental effort in the first innings of the first Test where they smashed 578, England managed to get past the 200-run mark only once in their last seven outings. They did not manage a single 50-run-stand post their first innings of the 1st Test and the major reason behind it was the spin duo of Ashwin and Axar Patel.

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