England’s ability to reverse swing the ball throughout the series proved costly for India

England pace bowler James Anderson and India opening batsman Gautam Gambhir have both admitted that reverse swing played a major role throughout their four-Test series.

While the pitches in India didn’t have much in them for the seamers, Anderson found some reverse swing and used it to trouble the Indian batsmen.

Meanwhile, Gambhir noted that pace bowler Zaheer Khan was the “master of reverse swing”.

“We have got Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma; Zaheer is the master of reverse swing,” Gambhir said.

Anderson himself admitted that Khan had a knack for picking up wickets by concealing the ball, which confuses batsmen as they do not know what type of delivery to expect.

“When we were last in India, I watched Zaheer bowl and was impressed with the way he held the bowl so the batsman could not make out which the shinier side was,” Anderson said.

Talking about the 2-1 loss to England, Gambhir mentioned that he and Sachin Tendulkar should have put up better performances with the bat during the series.

“In every innings two or three batsmen get off to good starts, and then it is their responsibility to make the big scores,” Gambhir added. “I should have gone on after getting into the 60s – Sachin and I should have got the big runs. Still, there are no easy hundreds in Test cricket! At any rate, this is a stage to deliver, not the stage to learn.”