Following England’s crushing 336-run defeat to India in the second Test at Edgbaston, former captains Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain offered a detailed post-mortem of the loss, with both suggesting that the pitch conditions played a key role in India’s dominance.
Mike Atherton, as quoted by The Indian Express, took aim at both England’s tactics and their execution, particularly their failure to survive on a pitch he described as one of the flattest seen in recent years.
“In the end, the philosophical dilemma and chin-stroking mattered not a jot,” Atherton remarked, referencing England’s Bazball ethos. “It was not so much a question of whether this England team, so disdainful of the concept of the draw, would contemplate playing for it but whether they were good enough to do so.”
He noted with disappointment how England, on such a docile surface, managed to last just 157 overs across two innings, including seven ducks, four of which came from the top six. “On a still true pitch, it was so dispiriting that England did not make a better fist of surviving what was essentially a day’s worth of cricket,” Atherton wrote.
Hussain Says Pitch Conditions Suited India
Nasser Hussain echoed similar sentiments but highlighted how India’s bowlers, particularly Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, were far better equipped to exploit the subtle movement the pitch eventually offered.
“Even though it was still pretty dead on day five, the Indian seamers were getting the ball to move about off the cracks and dryness in the surface,” Hussain observed.
He also explained that England, who won the toss and chose to bowl first, may have misread the surface’s behaviour over the course of five days. “A pitch naturally dries out over the course of a game and is therefore at its driest at the end. India’s bowlers were brought up having to cope with those conditions.”
Hussain compared England’s pace attack with India’s, noting a critical difference in their bowling styles: “England’s bowlers were hitting the deck hard but a lot of pace was being taken off the ball, whereas India thrived with their skiddier trajectories,” he said. “They needed the kind of mode of attack that Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj provided, where kissing the surface got more out of it.”
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