It's Going To Be Very Difficult For England To Come Back In The Series: Darren Gough

Former England pacer, Darren Gough opines that it is nigh-impossible for Joe Root’s side to make any sort of comeback in the ongoing series against India after their defeat inside two days in the day-night Test in Ahmedabad.

India took an unassailable 2-1 series lead with a 10-wicket victory, in a little more than 5 sessions, as Axar Patel and R Ashwin ran rit through the English batting line-up bowling them out for 112 and 81.

Darren Gough, who has been on the winning side of a 2-day Test when England rocked the West Indies in 2000 at Leeds, says that there will be a huge mentality difference between England and India after such a game.

“This England team have been battered in back-to-back games now and it’s going to be very difficult to come back from that. You can imagine the mentality of some of the lads will be quite fragile. The mentality of this India now is like Australia in the 90s: get a team by the throat and win, win, win,” Darren Gough told the PA news agency.

White-ball cricket has taken a high preference over Test cricket: Darren Gough

The 50-year-old cricketer-turned-commentator feels pity for Joe Root, as he cannot field his best eleven while Eoin Morgan’s white-ball side, which will take on India in a 5-match T20I series is of full strength. This comes in accordance with ECB’s rest and player rotation policy for giving break to the players to keep them fresh for matches, in particular, T20I games in view of the T20 World Cup later this year.

“If I was Joe Root, I’d be livid. I feel for him because I believe one-day cricket has taken a high preference this time, just as he was getting something together with this team. Eoin Morgan has got his preferences over the Test side,” Darren Gough added.

Players like Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow were rested at some point in the Test series in India, and Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes were rested from the Sri Lanka Test series – but they all will play in the T20I series against India and later in the IPL also.

“I know we are building towards the T20 World Cup in India but our main players are settled, they don’t need to play every 50-over or 20-over game. For the T20 series we should have gone in with some fringe players and seen who was ready to push for that squad.

“I really hope they can come away with a 2-2 draw, it would be a terrific result, but even then they’d be thinking ‘have we missed a chance here? What if we’d kept all our best players together?” the former pacer further added.

Also Read: Andrew Strauss Slams Virat Kohli For Defending Ahmedabad Pitch; Says The Indian Captain Looks After The Groundsmen