‘It’s like having another Ben Stokes’ – Joe Root on Sam Curran

The key moment came in the 11th over of the day, when India’s captain Virat Kohli, who was batting on 51 and had made a brilliant 149 in the first innings, was struck on the pads by a delivery from England all-rounder Ben Stokes. The dismissal left India 141/7 with their best player out, but Root still felt the game wasn’t done.

“I knew there was still a lot of hard work to do,” he said. “The temptation then is to chase the game and I think we were really good in staying quite calm, trusting the things that have worked for us previously, and making sure that we didn’t get ahead of ourselves. I felt quite calm, I might not have appeared to be which is something to work on!”

Stokes might have struck that key blow and was instrumental in the fourth innings, taking 4/40 to defend a small target of 194, but it was another all-rounder who received the main plaudits – 20-year-old Sam Curran, who, playing in just his second Test match, claimed 4/74 in India’s first innings before striking a vital, momentum-shifting 63 off 65 to give England something to bowl at, claiming the Player of the Match award for his efforts.

“He had a brilliant game,” said Root. “He’s got a huge amount of skill and didn’t seem to feel any sort of pressure there with the bat as well and seems to just love the occasion. It’s like having two Ben Stokeses, which is a great thing. He’s only two Tests in and it’s very easy to get carried away but he’s very exciting, a very promising cricketer.”

On the game as a whole, Root, as you’d expect, was delighted with the result, and reserved special praise for the bowlers on both sides, in a game when both first innings totalled less than 300 and both second innings totalled less than 200.

“I’m thrilled to bits,” he said. “It was a fantastic team performance. It fills you with a lot of confidence going into the next game and beyond. There’s been ups and downs throughout but credit has to go to both bowling sides more than anything. It’s easy to criticise the batters but it was a very challenging pitch.

“To take as many wickets as have gone down over three-and-a-bit days, there’s obviously a bit for the bowlers. Saying that, you’ve got to deliver. Coming into today we knew it was going to be a stiff test, but I asked the guys to go and play with passion, show some belief, and if we stayed calm throughout we’d give ourselves the best chance.”