Chris Silverwood urges England to ‘clear their minds’ after second Test defeat
Chris Silverwood, England’s head coach, has instructed his players to spend the short break before the start of the third Test against India putting aside the intense emotion that characterised the final day at Lord’s on Monday and which contributed to one of the team’s most scarring defeats of recent years.
England focused on retribution at the expense of control when they got the chance to bowl at Jasprit Bumrah for the first time since he had so aggressively targeted Jimmy Anderson on the third day, and it allowed the Indian seamer and Mohammed Shami to shift the momentum of the match in the tourists’ favour.
“Emotions ran high, there’s no doubt about it,” said Silverwood, reflecting on the 151-run defeat that left England 1-0 down in the five-match series. “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.
“What I don’t want to do is to lose the passion. I want us to keep that passion and use it in a real positive way.
I’d say it gives you energy, it gives you fuel. The good thing is we’ve got a bit of space now, between this Test finishing and Headingley, so they can go home, spend a bit of time with their families, calm down a little bit, clear their minds and come back fresh.”
Silverwood will chair a selection meeting on Tuesday evening, with the squad for the third Test at Headingley due to be announced on Wednesday. He insisted that for all the hostility on the field the players of both sides “seem to get on fine” off the pitch – and that though the emotions of the final day did nothing for England’s chances of victory, they did lead to some brilliantly compelling cricket.
“The one thing we’re not scared of is a little bit of a fight,” he said. “They push us, we push 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. I think it’s great, the guys are getting stuck into this fight and I’m enjoying it.”