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England's Jonny Bairstow reacts after playing a shot. REUTERS
Jonny Bairstow expressed confidence that England can still turn things around in the third Test against India despite knowing only a miracle would help them achieve that goal.
“We’ve lost a few wickets this evening and that wasn’t ideal and that wasn't to plan. However, we still got Rooty (Joe Root) out there in the middle and Jos (Buttler) and Woakesy (Chris Woakes) to come. (Adil) Rashid has scored a heck a lot of runs over a period of time. So still got a lot of batting left in the shed. We’re behind the eight-ball at the moment, but tomorrow’s going to be a tough day. But there's no reason why we can’t,” said the England wicketkeeper.
England bowled a very defensive line for much of the day, hoping Indians would commit mistakes. Bairstow defended the tactics, saying they wanted to control the run-rate.
“At some point you've got to control the rate, haven't you. At the same time we got wickets from bowling that way. So are you going to bowl to someone’s strength or are you going to bowl to someone's weakness? Two different options to take.
“Someone's very strong straight, you don't bowl straight, someone's very strong with the short ball, you don't bowl short to them. Different options to take. Different phases of play you go through. That was just a phase in play and something I thought worked really well.”
Although England have been found wanting against Ashwin, Bairstow felt they’ve played him well in this series.
“We’ve lost a few wickets this evening and that wasn’t ideal and that wasn't to plan. However, we still got Rooty (Joe Root) out there in the middle and Jos (Buttler) and Woakesy (Chris Woakes) to come. (Adil) Rashid has scored a heck a lot of runs over a period of time. So still got a lot of batting left in the shed. We’re behind the eight-ball at the moment, but tomorrow’s going to be a tough day. But there's no reason why we can’t,” said the England wicketkeeper.
England bowled a very defensive line for much of the day, hoping Indians would commit mistakes. Bairstow defended the tactics, saying they wanted to control the run-rate.
“At some point you've got to control the rate, haven't you. At the same time we got wickets from bowling that way. So are you going to bowl to someone’s strength or are you going to bowl to someone's weakness? Two different options to take.
“Someone's very strong straight, you don't bowl straight, someone's very strong with the short ball, you don't bowl short to them. Different options to take. Different phases of play you go through. That was just a phase in play and something I thought worked really well.”
Although England have been found wanting against Ashwin, Bairstow felt they’ve played him well in this series.