NEW DELHI: India were trailing 0-1 after losing the opening Test of the five-match series in Hyderabad but bounced back in style to win the remaining four matches to lift the trophy 4-1. Rohit Sharma-led side thrashed England by an innings and 64 runs to wrap the series on a resounding note.
India's head coach Rahul Dravid lauded Rohit's significant contribution not just with the bat, but also his leadership qualities.
“It has been a pleasure watching him bat since I saw him as an 18-year-old. It is always pleasing to the eye. But I think he has added a lot of steel and grit to that. Sometimes, we forget that a little bit. Look at his numbers. He was shy enough not to mention the critical situation where he won the toss in Rajkot, and we were 3 down in the first hour. You need somebody to step up and get a hundred, and the captain does that for you,” Dravid said in a chat on JioCinema.
1/10:5th Test: India crush England to win series 4-1
Reuters
2/10:Ravichandran Ashwin
<p>Ravichandran Ashwin took a five-wicket haul in his 100th Test as India hammered England by an innings and 64 runs in the fifth match to seal the series 4-1 on Saturday. </p>Reuters
3/10:James Anderson
<p>James Anderson reached 700 Test wickets early in the day to be just the third bowler to achieve the feat, but England were never in the game. </p>Reuters
4/10:Ashwin's 5-77
<p>Ashwin returned figures of 5-77 to help bowl out England for 195 inside three days after India posted a mammoth 477 in Dharamshala. </p>PTI
5/10:England batting rocked
<p>Ashwin rocked England's top and middle-order after the tourists began their innings 259 runs behind and lost five wickets for 103 runs by lunch. </p>AP
6/10:Jonny Bairstow
<p>Jonny Bairstow, also in his 100th Test, attempted to take on the spinners and hit Ashwin for three sixes but finally fell LBW to Kuldeep Yadav after his 31-ball 39. </p>Getty Images
7/10:Ben Stokes
<p>At the stroke of lunch, Ashwin bowled England skipper Ben Stokes for two, taking down the star all-rounder for the 13th time in Tests. </p>Reuters
8/10:Joe Root
<p>Joe Root resisted with his 84 and was the last man to go. He was dismissed by Yadav as India celebrated and the players shook hands. </p>PTI
9/10:36th five-wicket haul
<p>Ashwin finished with nine wickets in the match and his 36th five-wicket haul in a career which began in 2011. </p>AP
10/10:Jasprit Bumrah
<p>Skipper Rohit Sharma did not take the field due to a "stiff back", with fast bowler deputy Jasprit Bumrah in charge and taking two wickets of his own. </p>PTIIndia were tottering at 33/3 in the first innings of the Rajkot Test and then Rohit played a captain's knock. He scored a magnificent 133 off 196 deliveries and added 204 runs with Ravindra Jadeja for the fourth wicket to take India out of trouble.
Rohit signed off the series with 400 runs in five Tests, averaging 44.44. He scored two centuries and a fifty in India's series win.
“He has been terrific to watch; it is not easy to start as a middle-order player and then open. To do that consistently when we needed it, especially in the last three games, is a credit to him in spite of other things happening around him,” said Dravid.
