England skipper Joe Root was in no mood to believe that England are on the backfoot after losing the second Test in Chennai. India beat England by 317 runs to level the series 2-1 as the spinners shared all the 10 English wickets in the second innings. This also brought to an end England’s six-match winning streak in Asian conditions. The hosts thus are back in level-terms in the four-match series at 1-1. Ravichandran Ashwin was awarded the Man of the Match for his all-round performance.

Meanwhile, Joe Root denied believing that his side are out of the series after the loss. He said that England are very much alive and kicking in the series to PTI in the post-match presser. 

We Are Alive In The Series: Joe Root

“We are still very much in the series. We played three brilliant games coming into the Test match. We are very much alive and kicking,” he said.

He further took inspiration from England’s recent form overseas and said that they are looking to say level-headed going further into the series.

“As I said after the last game it’s really important that we stay level. We don’t get too far above our station when we win and we don’t see it as doom and gloom when we have tough weeks like we have this time round. We’ve played some really good cricket over the recent past, in challenging conditions, very foreign conditions” said Root. 

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He also kept his opinion on the Chennai pitch which drew a lot of criticism for the way it played out throughout the Test match. Michael Vaughan especially was very critical of the uneven nature of the pitch in the course of the Test match. 

“It was a challenging wicket. The toss was an important one to win, but it wouldn’t guarantee a win either. India showed that you can score runs on it and found a way of managing the tricky surface. We have got to learn from that and take bits from India,” the England Test captain added.

India and England will now lock horns in the third Test which is a Pink-Ball game in Ahmedabad from February 24. Both teams have a week to prepare themselves for the penultimate test.

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