INDIA TOUR OF ENGLAND, 2025
McCullum singled out Akash Deep for his excellent bowling display © Getty
After a difficult five days at Edgabston which saw England lose to India by 336 runs, head coach Brendon McCullum admitted that the hosts got it wrong at the toss with the pitch not playing out as they had expected it to. The English head coach also praised India’s exceptional batting display led by their captain Shubman Gill.
“I think, 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. They played brilliantly with the bat in hand. Shubman Gill was batting at an elite level.”
McCullum also singled out Akash Deep for his excellent bowling display. The pacer got a ten-wicket haul in the match and constantly swayed the game India’s way. McCullum spoke about how Akash Deep exploited the conditions better and felt the Indians were more accustomed to the surface.
India bowled 63% of their deliveries at a good or fuller length in contrast to England, who bowled only 53% of their total deliveries at those lengths. It meant that the Indian quicks were also more effective than the English as they picked up 18 wickets for 454 runs – a wicket every 25 balls. England were much poorer, picking up only nine wickets for 624 runs corresponding to a wicket every 99 balls.
“Obviously the way they bowled, Akash Deep in particular, they’ve grown up playing on those sorts of surfaces where you’ve got to slam that slightly fuller length, and us bowling first presented them with those opportunities. Obviously the footmarks started to create some issues as well. You don’t always get every decision right.”
McCullum also believed that if not for Harry Brook and Jamie Smith’s record 303-run stand for the sixth wicket, England were thoroughly outplayed in the Test match. “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,” he added.
Heading into the third Test match at Lord’s with the series at 1-1, McCullum hoped the pitch would cater to England’s needs a lot more but also admitted that his batters would need to counteract the Jasprit Bumrah threat, who will return to India’s playing XI at Lord’s.
“Bumrah will more than likely come back in for the next one, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re well planned and well prepared and ready for the next challenge. It will be quite different, I imagine, to this surface and that’s probably a good thing for us,” McCullum concluded.
© Cricbuzz
