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English media has been unforgiving in their assessment of England’s capitulation at The Oval which cost them a Test series win over India on Monday.

Chris Woakes (left) and Gus Atkinson walking off the field after England’s defeat. (AFP Photo)
The first edition of the Anderson-Tendulkar may have ended on a thrilling note, but the English media hasn’t been kind to the England team for squandering the opportunity to get their biggest scalp of the Bazball era. Victories at Leeds and Lord’s had given England a 2-1 lead going into the fifth and final Test of the series. They appeared all set to improve that scoreline to 3-1 when Harry Brook and Joe Root centuries took them to 301/3 in chase of 374 at The Oval.
A collapse of epic proportions followed and England were bowled out for 367 with India securing their narrowest Test win (by runs) in history and secure a 2-2 draw in the five-match series.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, in a column for The Telegraph, claims that the team, led by stand-in captain Ollie Pope, panicked.
“…the truth is England panicked,” Vaughan wrote. “The closer they got, within 70, they tried to be more high-risk. The approach was wrong on the final morning. It was too risky.”
Vaughan stopped short of calling England chokers.
“If India lost in that fashion, we would have said they yipped up. If South Africa lost like that, we would say they choked. It was that bad a miss. The defeat will really hurt England. When you know you should win a game, it is so painful,” he wrote.
BBC’s chief cricket reporter Stephan Shemilt thinks failing after getting so close to a 350-plus target will go down as a missed opportunity.
“It was highly creditable for England to get so close to chasing down 374, what would have been their second highest of all time. It was also a missed opportunity for a statement series win. England let biggest win of Bazball era slip after all-time epic,” he wrote.
Lawrence Booth, writing for The Mail, noted that the Bazball era will not claim legitimacy in Australia and India unless England manage to take down one of them.
“Thanks to the Manchester rain in 2023, and India’s fightback here, their two home series against Australia and India under Brendon McCullum have finished all square. Their record under Stokes and McCullum remains strong, but Bazball’s critics — mainly in Australia and India, though plenty in England – will not take them seriously until they beat one of the other members of the so-called Big Three,” Booth wrote.

Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience in digital…Read More
Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience in digital… Read More
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