Win gives us great confidence: Root

The England Test side has had a rough ride over the last couple of years and many moments during the opening Test against India they appeared headed towards another defeat. But the predominantly young side, somehow, managed to hold their nerves in a pulsating game to go 1-0 up.

A visibly delighted English skipper Joe Root felt this win will give the team a major confidence booster. “Wherever you play in close games like this you desperately want to be on the right side of it for so many reasons. But one thing that really stands out for me is that inner drive and determination from this group of players. We’ve got a few things wrong in this game but we’ve kept that belief, we’ve kept that confidence within one another and I think that’s a big part of Test cricket and that gives us a great amount of confidence going into the rest of the series as well.”

England will miss the services of game-changer Ben Stokes for the second Test at Lord’s as he’s due in a Bristol court on Monday to fight charges of affray. Root, who shares a great relationship with the powerful Durham all-rounder, felt this could be a chance for another youngster to prove himself. “It’s always a miss whenever he’s not playing but we’ve got a good group of players underneath this side who have got an opportunity whoever it is to come in and put in a really strong Test performance. So I’ll have to sit down with the selection group and think clearly about what’s the right squad for that surface at Lord’s and then pick accordingly.”

Root heaped praise on young all-rounder Sam Curran, who produced a man of the match performance in just his second Test. “The reason Sam’s played is firstly for the performances that he’s put in for Surrey. Whenever you watch him operate on the field he has this desire and steeliness within him which, similar to Ben, wants to be involved in the big occasions and that obviously suits playing in Test match cricket and you’ve seen that throughout this game. I don’t want him to blush too much but that was a fantastic performance to come into his second Test match, under pressure and against the number one Test team in the world and play like that.”