'England has to be better' - Graeme Swann's message to visitors ahead of fourth Test against India

England succumbed to a humiliating defeat against India by 10 wickets in the day-night Test at Motera Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad. After the loss, many England players and former cricketers came up with the explanation that the pitch at Motera wasn’t up to the mark as it was specially made to benefit the home team.

However, contrary to the visiting nation, India admitted that their batting wasn’t impressive in the pink-ball game and they will have to work upon that. India could manage only 145 runs in their first batting innings. Speaking about the same, both the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and batsman Rohit Sharma had echoed the same statement that the batters lacked intent and there were no problems with the pitches.

Former English captain Kevin Pietersen appreciated Virat and Rohit for speaking about their flaws instead of finding excuses. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Pietersen hoped that the England batsmen will also be honest with themselves and will carry out an introspection of their performance in the Test.

“I hope there are some England batters waking up this morning and being honest with themselves at least, by acknowledging their batting was dreadful on that wicket?! I’ve heard Virat & Rohit say theirs was!,” Kevin Pietersen tweeted.

India don’t complain about it, they try and improve: Graeme Swann

Former England cricketer Graeme Swann also had similar advice for the English team as he told them to stop cribbing about the pitch and instead start preparing for the next game as they are going to get a similar wicket in the last Test too. Swann further gave the example of Virat Kohli saying that the skipper hadn’t complained regarding the England pitches. Instead he had worked hard to come back stronger against the bowlers.

“They (England) are going to get a very similar wicket to play on next week. There are no two ways about it, England has to be better. They cannot afford to make the same mistakes. They cannot afford to hide behind accusations that the pitch is turning too much. It’s nonsense.

“When India comes to England, they play on green seaming decks and India doesn’t complain about it, they try to improve. Virat Kohli worked his socks off to make sure his game could cope with Jimmy Anderson on a nibbling wicket. England will have to work their socks off to cope with Ashwin and more importantly Axar Patel,” Swann had said.