Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, admitted his team got it wrong by choosing to bowl first at Edgbaston in the second Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. After the match ended in a 336-run defeat, tying the series 1-1, McCullum said the team thought the pitch would improve for batting as the game went on. Instead, cracks appeared and the spinners got help.
Interestingly, just like the first Test at Headingley, Indian captain Shubman Gill said he would have also bowled first if he had won the toss. As it turned out, it was good for him to lose it. India scored 587 in the first innings under perfect batting conditions and then their pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep bowled out England for 427. India were in control from there and set a target of 608 which they defended with ease.
McCullum told Daily Mail, As the game went on we probably rethought our decision at the toss and thought we missed out. It’s probably fair to say that. We didn’t see the wicket behaving like that so we probably made a mistake.
He added, Only a great partnership from Jamie Smith and Harry Brook kept us in it for five days. We need to rethink this. Our plans aren’t rigid. We just thought the wicket would get better for batting as the game went on but that wasn’t the case.
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At Headingley England took advantage of two batting collapses as India’s lower order struggled against their pace attack. India batted better at Edgbaston because Shubman Gill batted well at number four and their batting line up was deeper.
McCullum said, We couldn’t expose them. We had a chance to bowl them out for under 350 on that wicket which would have been a good effort.
The third Test starts on July 10 at Lord’s.
