Did not play enough red ball cricket: Marcus Trescothick

NOTTINGHAM: England batting coach Marcus Trescothick has blamed scheduling and lack of red ball cricket for the home side's dismal performance in the first innings of the first Test here.

England were bowled out for 183 in the first innings as nine of their batsmen apart from Joe Root could not cross 30.

"Probably not," said Trescothick on being asked if the preparation was ideal.

"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," the former England opener added.

England are coming off white ball series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Apart from that, the domestic cricket has involved the T20 Blast and The Hundred competitions. "We all appreciate that trying to get all the cricket in for what you need for players 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."

Trescothick, however, refused to use it as an excuse.

"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. But it's not the way so you have to find a way and get into it in a different fashion."

He called Wednesday's performance an aberration and promised an improved show from England in the remaining days as well as the rest of the series.

"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."

He also said that India have improved over the past few years. India had lost the 2018 series 1-4 but since then they have scored two series wins in Australia.

"India are the most potent in comparison to where they have been for the past few years. They have a lot of bases covered. We saw them go to Australia and perform there. So it is 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."

"They have a good stock currently. They don't get to the World Test Championship final for no reason." IANS

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