Birmingham, July 6 England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick admitted that chasing down the massive target of 608 against India on the final day at Edgbaston will be a huge task, but insisted the team would stay positive and look to adapt as the situation demands.
With 536 runs still needed and seven wickets in hand, Trescothick acknowledged the difficulty of the challenge but refused to rule out any possibility.
“We all probably appreciate that it’s a hell of a lot of runs to try and score,” Trescothick said after play on Day 4. “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 got about another 10 to 15 overs of the ball at the hardest point before it gets a little bit soft, and then we’ll see how we’re going from that point, really.”
Trescothick said that while England would always aim to win, securing a draw — which would be only their second in three years — would not be a bad result given the circumstances.
“When you get to the point that you can [only] draw the game, of course [it is a good result]. 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.”
Responding to the perception that England under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum never play for a draw, Trescothick said: “This has kind of built up away from probably what the changing room messages are. You guys have a perception of what you think goes on in the changing room, and we obviously understand it a little bit more [than] the perception of what we’re trying to do.”
He added that England’s dressing room encourages players to aim for victory but also to adapt to situations. “We’re trying to give the players the best opportunity to win games every time that we go out to play, and then if we can’t do that, then we try and adapt accordingly, and plan ahead to what we’re going to try and do.”
While the world-record chase looks unlikely, Trescothick made it clear there would be no talk of simply hanging on for a draw. “I don’t think we use that sort of language,” he said. “We’re not naive enough to know that it’s a very challenging total… Some players may [choose to dig in]. 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.”
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