Marcus Trescothick: England’s assistant coach Marcus Trescothick has hinted at Ben Stokes and Co. not going for a draw despite an improbable 608 to chase against Team India at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The former England opener stated that the current dressing room culture is vastly different compared to their times, suggesting that they will go for the win.
Marcus Trescothick: With England already slipping to 72/3 on Day 4, they face an uphill challenge on Day 5 to stop Team India from levelling the series at Edgbaston. Akash Deep dismissed Joe Root (6) and Ben Duckett (25), while Mohammed Siraj got the better of Zak Crawley (0), making the new ball talk.
Marcus Trescothick: When asked by a reporter about suggestions of a draw, Trescothick said talks of going into their shell and digging out are not used in their dressing room. At the post-day presser, the 49-year-old said, as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo:
Marcus Trescothick: “I don’t think we use that sort of language. t’s not the sort of changing room that we are. We’re not naive enough to know that it’s a very challenging total… Do you just go in your bunker and just sort of dig it out? Some players may do that. You just don’t know really, and it’s [up to] individuals that can adapt to the game and understand what’s happening. But you’ve got to understand our changing room is a different type of culture in terms of what we’ve done in the past.”
Marcus Trescothick: The Englishmen had chased down 378 in their previous Test against India in 2022 at Edgbaston and hunted down 371 in Leeds last month. However, they must beat the highest-ever total chased down in a Test to beat India on this occasion.
“It’s a hell of a lot of runs to try and score” – Marcus Trescothick warns England
Trescothick observed that England are still at least 10-15 overs from the point when it gets slightly easier to bat, adding:
“We all probably appreciate that it’s a hell of a lot of runs to try and score. It’s 550 [536] tomorrow and I don’t think we’ve seen scoring rates quite that quick in a day, so of course it will be challenging. But we’ve probably about another 10 to 15 overs of the balls at the hardest point before it gets a little bit soft, and then we’ll see how we’re going from that point, really.”
A win for India will be their first-ever in Tests at Edgbaston.
