England endured a horrific India Tour that ended with a 142-run loss against India in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. With the huge loss, the Jos Buttler-led side were clean-sweeped 3-0 in the ODI series. Before that India won the T20I series as well. Former England star batter Kevin Pietersen blasted England’s approach throughout the series. He accused the side of practically not practising at all during the course of the series.
“They had one practice session, the day before the Nagpur game. They had no practice since. Only one batter who had a net was Joe Root. Sorry, but you cannot come to the sub-continent, keep on making the same mistake and then not practice. There is not a single sportsperson who goes into a series and decides ‘I am going to get better without practice.’ I am sorry. I was flabbergasted when I learnt England hasn’t practiced since the first game,” Pietersen said after the third India vs England ODI.
“I get it. Enjoy yourselves. These are the best time of your life. Play golf. Go out, eat in a beautiful restaurant. But you get paid to score runs. That is why you get paid. You get paid to win games of cricket. You don’t get paid to play golf. This is not a golf tour, this is a cricket tour. You practice so that you leave on a flight tomorrow knowing ‘I have given my everything to win a game of cricket for England’. There not one person in that England dressing room that cane get on a plane tomorrow, may be Joe Root is the only one who tried and practiced…not a single player tried.
“I am gutted, that I have to say that you can disrespect Indian conditions and India so much. I am absolutely gutted as an Englishman.”
England skipper Jos Buttler admitted his team were outplayed by India in the three-match ODI series which concluded with a 142-run defeat for the visitors at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Wednesday.
England batters heavily struggled against spin throughout their tour of India, which included a 1-4 defeat in the five-game T20I series and will need to make quick changes to their approach ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy set to kick off in Pakistan on February 19.
“Similar to the whole tour, we were outplayed by a fantastic team. Our approach is the right one, it’s just that we haven’t executed well. They put a great score on the board. Shubman played a great innings. We got off to a great start again but it’s a familiar story for us. We need to find a way to bat for longer. We were up against a really good side that keeps challenging us,” said Buttler in the post-game presentation.
The England batters heavily struggled throughout the three-game series with opener Ben Duckett and veteran Joe Root, who returned to the ODI side for the first time since the 2023 World Cup, being the only two English batters to accumulate three-digit scores across the three innings. Many will question the inconsistency on display by their middle-order which struggled against spin on more than one occasion.
With IANS inputs
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