England pacer Mark Wood has given the Indian team a stern warning after his team’s momentous victory in the first Test in Hyderabad. India They lost the Test by 28 runs as they failed to chase down 231 in the fourth innings.
Wood played as the only pacer in the England XI with three spinners Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley. Hartley on debut took 7/62 in the second innings after giving away 131 runs in 25 overs in the first innings while taking two wickets. He was more lethal and almost unplayable in the second inning.
Mark Wood bowled 25 overs giving away 62 runs and remained wicketless. There was not much help for him from the wicket while it was conducive to the spinners. The English spinners took 18 wickets in the match, compared to just 14 by the more experienced Indian spinners.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Mark Wood said the hosts would now have to come up with a new plan and England showed them they would not give up on the series.
“Now they have to come up with a different plan. We have only won one game and there are five in the series. “We have shown India that it will be a battle and that we are not going to give up.” Wood told BBC Sport.
He further said that the Hyderabad Test victory was one of the best ever in Test cricket and added that the victory has given India something to think about for the rest of the series. He further added that England believes in their camp after the victory.
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One of our greatest victories: Mark Wood
“It is one of our greatest victories. People were a little skeptical before, but there was always faith in the group. We knew it was going to be a huge task, and it was, but it is a monumental achievement. “Now we know we can do it and we have given India something to think about.” Wood said.
The pacer is now expecting a strong response from the Indian team, which was surely taken aback by this defeat. Ahead of the second Test in Vizag India will be without Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul due to injury problems. It was a bit of a batting collapse by the Indian batsmen after the fall of Yashasvi Jaiswal with the English bowlers hitting back hard.
“They are a top-level team. Even coming here before the series, everyone expects India to overwhelm us. I don’t know what tone they will produce. India has the potential to produce any wicket here, but now we have given them something to think about. It is not a foregone conclusion that we are going to show up here and they are going to take us out.” Wood added.
India has fallen to fifth position in the WTC points table with 43.33 PCT points. England still occupies 8th place in the table with 29.16 PCT points. The second Test match in Vizag begins on February 2.
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