England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick has said England are "not stupid enough" to rule out a draw on the final day of the Edgbaston Test against India.
India take control on day four of Edgbaston Test
England began day four of the second Test trailing by 244 runs as KL Rahul and Karun Nair resumed in the morning. Both players departed in the first session, but the visitors' lead stretched to 357 by lunch.
Read more: Most runs in a single Test, full list: Shubman Gill breaks all-time India record
In the second session, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill began to step on the accelerator before Pant was dismissed. Ravindra Jadeja then came in to shepherd India to Tea even as Gill continued to motor along. India eventually declared on 427-6, setting England a mammoth 608 to win in just over a day.
By stumps, England had 72 on the board, but had lost the wickets of Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Joe Root.
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Trescothick: Three results possible in every game that you play
Since Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took over the Test side in 2022, England's commitment to playing an entertaining brand of cricket has entailed a disdain for draws. “We’re in the entertainment business, no more draws,” went the line Joe Root said to Nathan Lyon at Edgbaston during the 2023 Ashes.
Also read: 'Take the draw' – Stump mic catches Harry Brook playfully asking Shubman Gill to declare
At the end of day four in Birmingham though, England batting coach Marcus Trescothick admitted that with seven wickets in hand and 536 more runs needed in a single day, a draw was very much on the table.
“We’re always trying to be as positive as we can, but we all appreciate it’s a hell of a lot of runs to try and score,” he said. “We need 536 tomorrow…I don’t think we’ve seen scoring rates like that. I don’t think we use that sort of (defensive) language, that’s not the sort of changing room we are. But we are not naive.
“If you get to the point where you can draw the game, of course, we’re not stupid enough to think that you have to just win or lose. There are three results possible in every game that you play.
“This has kind of been built up away from what the changing room messages are. I think there is a perception of what you think goes on in the changing room, but we obviously understand it a little bit more.”
England have drawn just one of their 37 Tests in the Stokes-McCullum era, which has coincided with a drop in the number of drawn Tests globally – 11 out of 93 Tests not involving England in this time have been drawn, the majority of them rain-affected (like England's against Australia in 2023).
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