London, Aug 22: England Test captain Andrew Strauss lauded the performance of his team and individual players that enabled the side to climb to the top position in Test cricket.
After making a clean sweep in the four-match series, Strauss spoke to the media at the presentation ceremony.
Excerpts:
On England’s performance
Outstanding effort again; we had to work pretty hard. Having forced [India] to follow on, we asked a lot of the bowlers [to stand up] and they responded magnificently well. In [this match] it was Graeme Swann’s turn to take the wickets and he toiled away brilliantly; he had to work really hard for his wickets but he was well supported by the seamers as well. When you look back at the start of the game, the 200 that Ian Bell scored was one of the best innings I have seen played. It was an outstanding performance and it set up the game brilliantly for us.
On the frustrating first few hours of the fifth day of the final Test (the Sachin Tendulkar-Amit Mishra partnership)
We still knew we had a lot of time left in the game and until the last 40 overs, before the new ball [was available], it was hard work on this wicket. We knew it was going to be hard work; Sachin Tendulkar and Mishra both played very well there. There were plenty of half chances so we thought if we just stick with it hopefully our chance will come at some point.
On the strength and depth of the team being reflected in Jonathon Trott and Chris Tremlett’s performance before they were injured
They both did exceptional jobs when they were playing and as we have seen so often in Test cricket, the strength of your squad is so important because there are going to be injuries and guys need to stand up and perform when it matters.
