Skipper Root: We need to be more ruthless

Joe Root. Pic/AFP

English skipper Joe Root on Monday rued that they could not take a big first innings lead after dismissing India for a paltry 191 and also dropped a few tough catches that cost them the fourth Test.

However, the home captain vowed to make a strong comeback at the Old Trafford in the final Test, starting September 10. England secured a 99-run lead after exploiting the conditions on Day Two, but India came up with a huge second innings effort to set the hosts a stiff 368-run target and won the contest by a comprehensive 157-run margin.

"We should have got a bigger lead the first time round with the bat. It would have been nice to have another 100 runs actually, and then we're looking at a very different, very different game," Root said in the post-match media interaction.

"It's been frustrating today to lose 10 wickets. But actually where the game is lost, where we could have really stamped authority on things was earlier in the game."
Root also rued some dropped catches including that of second-innings centurion Rohit Sharma at slip by Rory Burns that proved to be decisive in the end.

"We got to be a little bit more ruthless there, the first innings runs really cost us, as well as catching. We did put down a few chances, some of them were extremely difficult.

"And that has to be said, but at the same time you give chances and half chances to world class players. They take them, and we've seen that throughout this game."

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