Root basks in best win
The fourth Test in Southampton started on Thursday with Virat Kohli's India eyeing a second win on the trot to follow a clinical show in Nottingham in order to go level with England at 2-2 and contemplate becoming only the second team to win a five-match series after losing the first two Tests. However, four days later India's brittle batting was exposed by the off-spin of all-rounder Moeen Ali, who was playing his first Test of the series and Joe Root celebrated his first series win as captain in 2018. It was England's lower-middle order batsmen Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran -- the find of the series -- that proved to be the difference between the sides. The following are a few of the respective captains' thoughts after the match.
JOE ROOT
On the match
I was fairly confident that if we bowled to our potential... then we'd have enough in the bank to get across the line.
I thought after being 80-odd for six on day one, to then go out and play in different but still difficult conditions in the second innings -- and go about things how we did -- was a start to a really significant improvement.
His captaincy
I feel like I've had quite a big input into what has been going on, felt in control of things and I've got a real clear vision of how I see us improving long-term.
We've got some guys who are very willing to buy into that, and are very realistic and understanding of where we currently are and where we could really get to.
Yes, I think it probably has been [the best victory as captain]. When you have that understanding across the board and there's no selfish people within a team, it makes it very easy.
Moeen Ali
He's been brilliant. I couldn't be more pleased for him. He's such a big part of this team, and I think that's going to be the case moving forward.
VIRAT KOHLI
On not competing enough
We can look at the scoreboard and say we were only 30 runs away or 50 runs away, but we have to recognise that when we are in the midst of the situation, and not later. We know that we have played good cricket but we cannot say again and again to ourselves that we have competed. When you come so close, there is an art of crossing the line as well, which we will have to learn.
Wasting opportunities
We've spoken about that, even during the match when we're in a driving position, we should be able to capitalise on it and not let the opposition come in and fight back again and again.
At Nottingham we did that, for three days we were relentless and were on top. So we need to think about how to start a series like that as well.
England's lower order
It is quite handy to have guys who can strike the ball well at six, seven and eight because you have nothing to lose.
No team likes to see [opposition] players getting runs lower down but they have guys who are fearless and back their skills. I would like to congratulate Sam Curran, he has been a nice find for England and he is doing really well for them.
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