India Trounce England By An Innings To Win Series 4-1

India folded England for 195 all out, winning by an innings and 64 runs to clinch the five-match Test series 4-1 in Dharamshala.

Trailing by 259 runs when they begin their second innings, England could not survive India’s spin barrage, with no one barring Joe Root (84) really able to put on a resilient front. Jonny Bairstow entertained with a rapid cameo, but his dismissal was preceded and succeeded by R Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav’s trickery, before Jasprit Bumrah came back to clean up the tail.

Bumrah was India’s stand-in captain as Rohit Sharma, suffering from a stiff back, did not take the field.

Leading from the front, though, was R Ashwin, playing his 100th Test: he picked up his 36th five-wicket haul, snaring five out of England’s top-seven on his way to a ten-wicket match haul.

Sharing the new ball with Bumrah, Ashwin first dismissed Ben Duckett – the opener stepping out of his crease off just the fifth ball – then accounting for Zak Crawley for a 16-ball duck.

Ollie Pope swept a smartly bowled arm ball to Yashasvi Jaiswal at square-leg, while Ben Stokes and Ben Foakes couldn’t protect their stumps on either side of the lunch break.

Joe Root was the last to fall, trying to take on Kuldeep Yadav but only managing to hand a catch to Jasprit Bumrah, manning the long-on fence.

There was a bit of drama too: Jonny Bairstow and Shubman Gill were involved in a war of words just before Bairstow’s dismissal to Kuldeep Yadav.

Earlier, India were dismissed for 447 in the morning, with James Anderson picking up his record 700th Test wicket. Only spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne have achieved the feat before him.

With the win, India completed a 4-1 series win, having won the series in Ranchi after winning three matches in a row. They lost the opening Test in Hyderabad, before winning matches in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Ranchi and now Dharamshala.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored 712 runs at 89.00, ended with the most runs in the series. R Ashwin picked up the most wickets – 26 – from either side. Kuldeep won the Player of the Match, while Jaiswal was named the Player of the Series.

The last time England won more than one Test in a series in India was back in 2012, when they famously beat them 2-1 at home.