England start the third day of the Test match 84-5 at Edgbaston, 332 behind India’s 416. A year or two ago you would have said this was a hopeless position, but the last three Tests against New Zealand have given England real confidence that they can turn this.
James Anderson said yesterday that “I have a fair feeling that our best line of defense will be the offense. Our hitters are naturally aggressive. We want to score and move the game forward.”
That’s certainly been the case in the Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum era so far, but it’s an approach that involves risk and there will be days when England hit the market with their new philosophy of attack, attack, attack. Whether this is one such day remains to be seen, and England’s fate in this match is at least likely to be in the hands of the two men at the crease, Stokes himself and Jonny Bairstow. Bairstow seems to be loving his cricket at the moment and if he and the captain can get going again, they could make up some or all of that deficit in a warm order.
We will resume play at 1030 this morning. Anderson told the BBC: “We have to try and push our way through and put pressure on them. We’re up against it, but we were in that position before this summer.”
They certainly have and if they can somehow get out of this latest pickle then this could go down as one of England’s great escapes.
What a summer of cricket this is turning out to be. But standing in their way is the formidable Indian bowling attack, the superb Jasprit Bumrah is already in the wicket and if England think they can take any leeway with his bowling, they are in for a shock.
The weather looks decent on the ground right now, so let’s do it.
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