After England were routed at Edgbaston in the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, home captain Ben Stokes suggested the pitch resembled subcontinent conditions, which suited India more.
Following a win at Headingley in the series opener, England succumbed to a 336-run defeat, handing India their biggest away victory by runs.
Asked to bat first, India scored 587, riding on a career-best 269 from captain Shubman Gill. England, in response, were at one stage reeling at 84-5 in their first innings, but Jamie Smith’s epic 184 not out, aided by Harry Brook’s 158, helped them recover to 407 before being bowled out.
India’s second innings was also dominated by Gill, who smashed 161 off 162 balls. His 430-run tally in the match is the second-highest in Test history, just behind England’s Graham Gooch, who scored 456 against India in 1990. The hosts were set a target of 608, the second-highest fourth-innings target ever in England. They were eventually skittled out for 271, with Akash Deep picking up a 10-wicket haul in the match (4-88 and 6-99).
India scored 1,014 runs in the Edgbaston Test. Only once in England has a team scored more runs in a Test – during the 1934 Ashes at The Oval, when Australia amassed 1,028 runs.
When asked on BBC Test Match Special whether England wanted to continue playing on flat pitches, Stokes replied that the conditions resembled subcontinent surfaces, which favoured India more.
"To be honest, it’s probably ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch as it got deeper and deeper into the game. There was certainly a little bit in it to start off with and I think we exposed that very very well early on," said Stokes.
"Then just as it sort of got deeper and deeper, it just became a real tough slug for us and obviously with the Indian attack and the conditions that they’re used to, they were sort of used to and knew sort of how to expose those conditions just sort of a little bit better than us and that can happen sometimes.
"But yeah, it’s nothing to be too disheartened about. We can take being out-skilled and we’ve certainly been out-skilled this week," added Stokes.
🗣 "It ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch."
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) July 6, 2025
Ben Stokes thinks the Edgbaston pitch didn't really suit his England side. #ENGvIND #BBCCricket pic.twitter.com/EnG7uZi6Az
McCullum admits England got the toss wrong
England head coach Brendon McCullum said that England "probably" made a mistake by deciding to bowl first.
"I think, as the game unfolded, we probably looked back on that toss and said, 'Did we miss an opportunity there?' We didn’t expect that the wicket would play quite as it did, and hence we probably got it slightly wrong.
"But we did have them 200 for five and we weren’t able to capitalise on that position and when you win the toss and bowl, you’re hoping to, well you’re not anticipating the opposition’s going to score 580 and then from that point we’re behind the game," McCullum said.
In the Bazball era, England have chosen to field first in 12 of their 19 toss wins, winning eight of those matches. This approach has produced historic results, including their record 378-run chase against India at Edgbaston in 2022 (their highest successful pursuit) and the 371-run victory in the recent series opener (their second-highest).
However, the Edgbaston defeat marked just their third loss when opting to bowl first. The other two instances came during the 2023 Ashes at Lord's and a 423-run defeat in Hamilton against New Zealand last year.
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