Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel made life hard for us: England coach Chris Silverwood

England coach Chris Silverwood praised Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, stating the spin duo made life “very hard” for the visitors, who lost the series 3-1.

Ashwin and Axar combined to claim 59 English wickets as the Joe Root-led side squandered a 1-0 advantage and suffered three back-to-back defeats. With a win in the final Test, India roared into the World Test Championship (WTC) final, which will be held in England in June.

“They (Ashwin and Axar) made life very hard for us... India outplayed us, and they deserve a lot of credit. They came back hard after the first Test,” Chris Silverwood said during a virtual press conference.

“They outplayed us in their conditions. I’m going to give a lot of credit to the Indians. They came back hard after that first Test. We expected them to, but they came back very hard,” he added.

Top 5 wicket-takers in the India-England series

Ashwin-Axar dominance

With 32 wickets and a century in the series, Ashwin went on to bag his eighth man of the series Trophy.

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England were outplayed in India: Chris Silverwood

Many former England cricketers blasted pitches used for the final three Tests but Silverwood believes it’s fair to credit the Indians and accept that the hosts outplayed them.

“They outplayed us in their conditions. I’m going to give a lot of credit to the Indians. They came back hard after that first Test. We expected them to, but they came back very hard,” added Silverwood, who played 6 Tests and 7 ODIs for England between 1996 and 2002.

“It’s going to hurt for a while. And obviously, probably reflecting some talking going on between the players and the various coaches, but hopefully, we’ll pull the positives out of it and learn from it, and that will make them stronger moving forward.”

Having crashed out of the WTC final, England’s subsequent Test assignments will be a long summer at home against New Zealand and India. They also play the Ashes at the end of the year.