England batting coach Marcus Trescothick admitted that England didn’t have appropriate preparation heading into the five-match Test series against India after the hosts were bowled out for 183 in the first innings of the first Test at Trent Bridge on Wednesday (August 4).
Apart from Joe Root (64), none of the England batsmen could cross 30 in the first innings of the first Test against Team India and Trescothick blamed the lack of red-ball cricket and scheduling for the host's dismal performance on Day 1 of the ongoing Test in Nottingham.
England entered the first Test against India after the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, while the players were also involved in the T20 Blast and ongoing The Hundred.
England players haven’t played first-class cricket for the last nearly three months and the batting felt it played a role in their dismal performance in their first innings against India.
Trescothick said during the virtual press conference, “It's probably not [appropriate preparation], no. Scheduling is always an issue and, trying to get the balance right for the batters moving into Test series, of course, you would want them to play a certain amount of red-ball cricket.”
However, the batting coach has refused to use it as an excuse for their disappointing batting display on Day 1 against India.
He said, “Of course, we don’t want to use it as an excuse but we’d love to get more time into them at the crease: bowling with the red ball; facing the red ball. We'd love the preparation to be slightly better. But it's not the way it is, so you have to get into it in a different fashion.”
He continued, “We all appreciate that trying to get all the cricket in across the whole summer - county teams, The Hundred, all these competitions going on - there's no easy solution to get this right and something always has to give. As coaches, we accept that is the way it is but we cannot sit back and just because we haven't had the prep that it isn't going to work.”
Though, Trescothick has promised an improved show from the hosts in the ongoing first Test and the five-match Test series against India.
He further noted, “We’ll go away, lick our wounds and find a way to try and get back in the game. Today has not been the ideal day. Of course not, but that does not define how the rest of the game or the rest of the series is going to go.”
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Hailing India’s bowling attack; the England coach said the Indian cricket team has improved a lot over the past few years, especially when they lost the Test series 1-4 in 2018.
He said, “They are the most potent in comparison to where they have been for the past few years. They have a lot of bases covered. You can see the guys are not playing, how much quality they have also. They have a good stock currently. They don't get to the World Test Championship final for no reason.”
Trescothick signed off by saying, “We saw them go to Australia and perform there, so it's no surprise to us. It's just challenging and we know it's a real contest, we have to raise our game to match up against their skills. We have that ability, it's just making sure we do it better than we have done today.”
(With IANS/ESPNCricinfo Inputs)
