We are not scared of a little bit of a fight, if India push us, we push them back: Chris Silverwood

The England and India Test match at Lord’s ended in a dramatic fashion, with the visitors running away with a 151-run victory. Apart from some brilliant cricket, the Test match had a lot of verbal volleys between the two teams, which gave India’s win a bit more context. England head coach Chris Silverwood gave his opinion on the whole matter. 

The tussle started late on day three when Jasprit Bumrah started bowling bouncers at James Anderson. What seemed like a mere strategy to wrap the tail, wasn’t appreciated much by Anderson. While walking back the veteran was seen saying something to Bumrah. The back and forth continued when Virat Kohli came out to bat the next day and decided to give it to Anderson. 

However, everything got spilled over on day five with England losing the grip on the situation. As Bumrah arrived at the crease on day five, the England bowler started targeting him with short pitch bowling. While the other English fielders started having a go at the Indian pacer. Along with Mohammed Shami, Bumrah got a partnership of 89 runs, which in hindsight can be seen as the turning point. 

It got away from us a little bit when the lower order was in. We’ll learn from that: Silverwood

Silverwood said that his boys are not scared and will definitely go for a fight if required, “The one thing we’re not scared of is a little bit of a fight,” Silverwood said. “They push us, we push them back, to me it creates great Test cricket. We’re disappointed with the result, but what a Test match to watch. There has been a little bit of fire in there, emotion from two sets of proud players representing their country.”

Silverwood further said that his team tried to be neck to neck with the Indians. He also admitted that the emotions took the best of the English team. However, after stating these things, he also urged his team to use the fire in a positive way. He said he doesn’t want England to lose the passion with which they approached the situation. 

“Emotions ran high, there’s no doubt about it. Obviously, they targeted Jimmy in that first innings, we went back hard at them as well, and we tried to go toe to toe with them. Maybe it got away from us a little bit when the lower order was in. We’ll learn from that,” Silverwood said during a media session.