England have said, over and over, that they are prepared to chase anything. Could that be about to change?
Vithushan Ehantharajah05-Jul-20252:26
Were India too careful before declaration?
Black Sabbath playing their farewell gig at Villa Park while, five miles down the road, Rishabh Pant’s bat was soaring through the air at Edgbaston recalled one of the more iconic rock tales.During a gig in 1982, lead singer Ozzy Osbourne picked up what he thought was a toy bat – Sabbath fans would often toss animals or parts of animals (real and fake) on stage – and bit off its head.It was, unsurprisingly, disgusting. Not least for Osbourne, who remembers it all too well. And yet, it could not have been better for his and Sabbath’s legend.Heavy metal is as much about rough distortions of decency as guitars, and while Sabbath do have the latter, it is hard to argue their reputations, especially Osbourne’s, were not enhanced stratospherically by that misguided chomp. The flipside is the action itself remains, for Osbourne, a tedious subject to address. Its bitter aftertaste lingers not just on the tongue, but in decades of reminders of his moment of misguided impunity from all who cross him.And so, as Pant, bat in hand, strummed a half-century in keeping with his own reputation to put an absurd target of 608 in front of England, the expectation still hung heavy on England that, even at three-down for 72 overnight, they’ll still go for this. It’s an expectation rooted in a view of them of heroes or fools, depending on quite literally where you have been sitting at Edgbaston.This a team that famously chases anything. They have shown as much, chewing off six 250-plus targets chucked to Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum by darers. That includes their record of 378 achieved here, against India three years ago to the day, and last week’s 371 against them at Headingley. Akash Deep left Ben Duckett’s stumps in a mess•Getty ImagesHarry Brook’s aerial flick just beyond midwicket’s grasp – for the first of two boundaries in the final over of the day, as he walked off with a run-a-ball 15 alongside Ollie Pope, 22 off 43 with a 71 percent control – was more than a nod to the ambition that remains.”I think that’s their style,” Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, said when asked if he expected England to go for the remaining 536 runs. “Harry Brook is a guy who likes to take the game on, and is an entertainer.”You could argue that England’s failures in the fourth innings have been every bit as much a part of the narrative as their well-documented successes. The two previous times they have been asked to chase more than 400 runs (658 against New Zealand and 557 against India, both last year) they have lost by more than 400 runs (423 and 434 respectively). On neither occasion did they make it into the 49th over. Their fourth-innings mantra is get rich or die trying.Meanwhile, their words – oh God, their words! – have been so much louder. So loud, they squealed like feedback from the annals as the number required went up and up. Take Stokes’ comments after the 2022 success here, that a bit of him wanted India to get 450 “to see what they [his team] could do”, suggesting 378 had come a little too easy.And then there were the comments from Joe Root a year later. As revealed on documentary by Nathan Lyon, Root had told Australia’s offspinner during a break in the first Ashes Test – again here at Edgbaston – that England were “in the entertainment business – no more draws”. They lost that one. In Vizag last year, during the second Test against India, James Anderson said McCullum had gathered the players on night two, with England 171 behind having been skittled in their first innings, to tell them that they’d chase 600 if it was put before them. Set 399, they set themselves up nicely before succumbing to a 106-run defeat. Related
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A couple of weeks later, in Rajkot, we were treated to Ben Duckett’s immortal “the more the better” quote when asked what a reasonable target would be. Faced with 557, they lost by 434. Even last night, Brook basically shrugged when stating “everybody in the world knows we’re going to try and chase whatever they set us”. India did, too, with Brook’s words picked up by their management group and used as vindication for the third innings descending into a slow trudge. India, after all, are not the ones with a reputation to uphold, and it is no slight on their tactics to suggest their approach to this situation has simply been to call England’s bluff.As stumps approached, those same fans chanting “boring, boring India” rose in voice and from their seats as renditions of “stand up, if you still believe” coursed through the stands. Goading England with a monstrously big target and saying “go on then”, and swathes of the home support this evening looking at 5.96 an over for day five’s 90 and thinking “you know what …”: both sentiments come from the same place.India are wary of what England can do, especially on this deck, having somehow restricted their first-innings deficit to 180, having been 84 for 5 in reply to India’s 587. It is why they want three cracks with a hard ball – tonight, tomorrow morning and the second one due 64 overs into Sunday. And why it would be inexplicable in any other context for Shubman Gill to deploy a sweeper to the off side after Duckett lashed four boundaries in his first 11 deliveries.England, just as inexplicably, think there’ll be a time tomorrow when they might be in a position to have a reasonable go. Assistant coach Marcus Trescothick offered some logic to this apparent absurdity: “We’ve got a few overs, probably about another 10 to 15 overs, of the ball at its hardest before it gets a little bit soft. And then we’ll see how we’re going from that point really.”There is a clear halfway house here, which would involve England going at a steady rate – the runs so far this Test have come at 4.40 – without taking outlandish risks. It would be a positive way for the team to play for their first draw in 38 Tests under Ben and Baz, if you will.Would that pass the sniff test? Some fans may bemoan a shutting-up of shop at some point on day five. And there will be derision further afield of a team breaking their own promise to themselves. A lot will depend on how many wickets they have in hand.But there is clear value in the draw in this five-match series, particularly in a second Test that could preserve a 1-0 lead. And at no point should they fear their reputation will be harmed if they pass on the outlandish and stick to more conservative practice. Opponents will still fear them. Fans will still love them.Osbourne has not chewed the head of a bat in 43 years, but Villa Park is still sold out.