Ranchi
\nIndia batters Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel put together a 72-run partnership as India beat England by five wickets in the fourth Test match in Ranchi and took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
\nChasing a target of 192 runs in the fourth innings on Monday, India were reduced to 120-5, but Gill (52) and Jurel (39) calmly guided their side home with their unbeaten partnership on the fifth day of the Test.
\nYoung England spinner Shoaib Bashir took three wickets as the visitors kept India\u2019s batters in check until Gill and Jurel steadied the chase.
\nIndia\u2019s skipper Rohit Sharma said his team\u2019s young players had filled the shoes of missing veterans to shine in cricket\u2019s toughest format.
\nPlayer of the match Jurel, 23, who made his debut in the previous win in Rajkot, turned the match on its head with his 90 after he lifted India from 177-7 in their first innings to 307 on day three.
\n\u201cTest cricket throws different kinds of challenges, different kinds of pressures,\u201d Rohit told reporters. \u201cBut the way they have dealt with the pressures throughout the series has been superb.\u201d
\nUsual frontline players such as Virat Kohli and injured KL Rahul were absent from the lineup.
\n\u201cThese guys who have come in have done the job perfectly,\u201d Rohit added.
\nFast bowler Akash Deep, 27, made an instant impact on his debut, rattling England with his three wickets on day one of the Ranchi Test, after pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was rested.
\n\u201cLots of these guys are quite young,\u201d Rohit said. \u201cYou\u2019ll see these guys playing in the coming five to 10 years regularly in this format.\u201d
\nMiddle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan, 26, also impressed on debut in Rajkot when he scored 62 and 68 not out in India\u2019s 434-run hammering of England.
\nEngland captain Ben Stokes offered similar praise for his young players, after bringing in spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir.
\nBashir, a 20-year-old lanky off-spinner who missed the opener due to a visa issue, and who took his first five-wicket haul in just his second match, has 12 wickets.
\nThe 24-year-old Hartley, a left-arm spinner, leads the series bowling with 20 wickets ahead of Bumrah with 17.
\nStokes said there had been \u201ca lot of question marks around the two selections\u201d, but said the choices had been vindicated.
\n\u201cThey\u2019ll be able to leave at the end of this tour with their heads held very high\u201d, he said.
\nStokes said England and India had faced similar challenges.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the same for India, they\u2019ve had to bring in some inexperienced players,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been great for inexperienced guys coming in, and almost throwing out the theory of needing experience.\u201d
\nEngland won the first Test of the series in Hyderabad, but India bounced back to win the next two in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot before sealing the series in Ranchi.
\nThe fifth and final Test will begin in Dharamshala on March 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ranchi India batters Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel put together a 72-run partnership as India beat England by five wickets in the fourth Test match in Ranchi and took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. Chasing a target of 192 runs in the fourth innings on Monday, India were reduced to 120-5, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-389914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n