By Dhammika Ratnaweera
“Everyone was in a position where they were fit and raring to go. Whatever team we went with would have given us a great opportunity but t three spinners Moin Ali, Jack Leach and Adil Rashid have dovetailed extremely well, built pressure and not necessarily taken their rewards,” said England jubilant Skipper Joe Root in praise of his three spinners who played a dominant role in the winning Sri Lanka test series capturing a total of 48 wickets out of 56 that fell to bowlers.
Joe Root further said the beauty of his squad was that they had all bases covered which contributed to their 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the three-Test series that ended at the SSC grounds yesterday. After 65 years England won this type 3/0 whitewash to take the winning trophy Infact after 2004 against Australia under Rickey Ponting and 2007 against India under Virat Kholi Joe Root and the team recorded this memorable series win on the Sri Lanka soil .
“The most enjoyable thing about it is that it has been a complete squad effort. I said at the start that it was going to be the case and whether it is guys on their first tour in these conditions or the senior players they have really taken that tag and stepped to set an example for the young guys
“ Actually Moin Ali in particular has really stepped up as a senior Englaish bowler and led the way to win this series . He’s been quite vocal at times on plans and trying to get the best out of the other two guys and he deserved a lot of credit,” said Root who is getting leadership after Alestair Cook.
“From start to finish we’ve planned very well, we’ve obviously had the experience of Trevor (Bayliss) and Farby (Farbrace) in these conditions which was very important and a great learner for us. We found a formula to be successful very early on. Then with the strength of the squad we had so many different options depending on the conditions.”
Expressing the feeling of winning a Test series in the subcontinent Root said: “It felt like relief, the way it was going towards the back end. It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable trip from start to finish. The way the group has approached it in general, we’ve done things differently, everyone has bought into that and if they hadn’t we wouldn’t be sitting here 3-0 up. Joe Root and company have extra holiday with recorded this test win with day to spare expected to back home on Thursday (29) with memorable series 3-1 one day series , 1-0 T-20 and 3-0 test series and recorded wins from all three format of the cricket .
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