On Day 1 at Edgbaston 🏟️, just after Tea 🍵, England 🇬🇧 had reduced India 🇮🇳 to 211 for 5 having picked up the wickets of Rishabh Pant 🧤 and Nitish Kumar Reddy 🏏 in quick succession. But with England allowing the visitors to post a mammoth 587 🧱 in the first innings from that point — courtesy a double-century 💯💯 from Shubman Gill 🧠🔥 — skipper Ben Stokes was left to rue two missed opportunities that turned the balance of the game in India's favour.

“I think there were two moments in the game. Having them 200 for five and then not quite being able to blast them open 💥, like we know that we can. They ended up getting a big first innings total 📈, obviously after us having a good start, having them five down for not too many on the board. Then, being 80 for five in reply 📉 to the first innings, it’s obviously going to be tough to get back into a position where you [can] look to push on and be on the winning side 🏆, at the end of the game.”

England’s bowling 🎯 has been a major concern in the two Tests so far. Despite winning the Headingley Test 🥇, India were in commanding positions 💪 in both innings in Leeds, before they collapsed — from 430/3 to 471 📊 and then 333/4 to 364 in the second. This time in Edgbaston, the English bowlers managed to pick up only 16 wickets ❌🎳 at the cost of 1014 runs 💸 across both innings. Stokes admitted it wouldn't be possible to emerge victorious if the bowlers couldn’t pick up 20 wickets but he also lauded India’s application with the bat 👏.

"You can’t win a game if you don’t take 20 wickets 🧹," Stokes said. "You do have to appreciate how well India played with the bat 🏏. Obviously, pretty favourable conditions ☀️ if someone got in — two of our lads, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith, showed that this week. If you get in, it is very hard to get someone out. India is full of world-class players 🌍💫. Shubman [Gill] has had another unbelievable week with the bat 🧨. Skill vs skill ⚔️, it is always tough."

England’s bowlers have bowled a combined total of 234 overs at Edgbaston 🌀 and 209 overs at Headingley 🌀 in the series so far. Stokes was highly appreciative of his bowlers' hunger to run in and bowl in any situation 💯, but also admitted that they had been out in the field far longer than expected ⏳.

“Yeah, absolutely good as gold 🥇. I think the efforts that we all put in as a bowling unit there, especially the big quicks 💪🔥, was you throw the ball to them in any situation and they keep charging in 🚀, running in — but it's no secret that we’ve spent some serious time in the field ⛅ and bowled a lot of overs. We’ll have to see how everyone pulls up over the next two days 🧊🛌.”

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