England head coach Andy Flower was extremely proud of his players after their historic series win against India, saying they adapted to the spin and foreign conditions better than anyone outside the camp expected.

England won their first series in India since 1985, taking it 2-1 after drawing the fourth Test in Nagpur on Monday. Alastair Cook may have been the star batsman overall, but a number of players contributed with the bat to score centuries, like Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell in the last game.

Flower was particularly pleased with the side's fighting spirit after going one down in the series, and also gave credit to the side's senior players for leading rookies like Joe Root and Nick Compton towards good performances.

The Zimbabwean said: "They've really done themselves proud here and their country proud. To come out here and show that they've learnt things is one of the special things about this victory.

"They've learnt how to play spin a lot better, obviously not the finished article but they've learnt how to take 20 wickets in these conditions and they've learnt how to be resilient in foreign conditions.

"I think those are all things they can be very proud of."

After going down in the first Test in Ahmedabad by nine wickets, all and sundry predicted a whitewash in favour of the hosts, but Flower believed his lads could pull it back and was rewarded when they romped to wins in the next two games.

He continued: "It's nice for that faith to be repaid. I must say after that first Test loss I was heartened by the way that we played in the second part of the first innings and heartened by the way we played in the second innings.

"I've also seen the work, obviously very close hand, that they were doing in training and I was convinced they were better players of spin than they showed in the first bit of that first innings in Ahmedabad - that cost us really dear there.

"We didn't know which way it was going to go but I think they've proved they've learnt a lot especially some of the older players.

"That is a testament to some of their humility and their maturity to continue their learning into this phase of their career."