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England head coach Brendon McCullum has admitted the huge error that cost his team at Edgbaston.
Brendon McCullum’s England looked no match to India at Edgbaston. (AP Photo)
England head coach Brendon McCullum has accepted that his team made the wrong decision to bowl first at Edgbaston in the second Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Speaking after the Test ended in a huge, 336-run defeat that leveled the series 1-1, McCullum said the hosts were expecting the pitch to ‘get better to bat on’ over the course of the match, but the opposite happened as cracks opened up and even spinners got help.
Interestingly, just like the first Test at Headingley, Indian captain Shubman Gill also said he’d have bowled first at the toss. It was a great toss to lose for him, then, as India smashed 587 in the first innings in sublime batting conditions, before their pacers Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep stepped up to dismiss England for 427. India controlled the game from thereon, setting a 608-run target, which was easily defended.
“As the game unfolded we probably looked back on that toss and said, ‘Did we miss an opportunity there’, and it’s probably fair,” McCullum said, as quoted by Daily Mail. “We didn’t expect the wicket would play quite as it did and hence we probably got it slightly wrong.”
“It was only a brilliant partnership from Jamie Smith and Harry Brook which gave us any balance in the game throughout the five days. That’s something we’ve got to look at. We’re not rigid with our plans. It’s just we thought this pitch might get better to bat on as we went through the five days, but as we saw it didn’t,” he added.
At Headingley, England earned two batting collapses as India’s lower-order struggled against their pacers. That didn’t happen at Edgbaston, thanks to India’s increased depth and bigger contributions from Shubman Gill at number four, with his daddy hundreds tiring the bowlers relentlessly in both innings.
“We just weren’t able to bust them open. We had a chance to bowl them out for under 350 on that wicket, which would have been a good effort,” McCullum said.
The third Test will begin on July 10 at Lord’s.
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
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