India's 28-run loss at the hands of England saw the Men in Blue suffer their only fourth Test loss at home since 2013. On a spin-friendly surface of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, the English side got the better of the Indians as they staged a comeback for the ages to win the match. With India 1-0 down, predictions of a series loss and a whitewash have begun to make their way.
Ex-England spinner Monty Panesar has stated that the England team now has a chance to beat India at their own home by 5-0 depending if Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley continue to do their work to perfection like they did in the first game.
"If Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley continue to play like this it will be a whitewash, it will be 5-0 for England. It can happen. It is a very big victory, no one even imagined this was even possible. Everyone thought that England would lose after a 190 deficit but Ollie Pope had a brilliant inning one of the best innings we have seen in a long time and Rohit Sharma was clueless," Panesar told ANI.
Notably like many others, Panesar also described Pope's innings as one of the best. "It is a very big victory, no one even imagined this was even possible. Everyone thought that England would lose after a 190 deficit but Ollie Pope had a brilliant inning one of the best innings we have seen in a long time and Rohit Sharma was clueless.
"India need to stop giving the freedom that the England players are getting. If Virat Kohli was playing he would have been in the faces of these England players and told them 'Hey, do it again let's see how good you are'. This is an England team who are not scared of losing, they don't scare if they lose. In the next four games, they (England) would still play with the fear of failure," he added.
