Who knew that in England, a place considered one of the toughest for openers and batters in general, would become the hub of chasing targets in the fourth innings? Well, that has been the big, drastic change in the Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum era; the wickets have gone flatter and flatter and the Dukes ball, surprisingly, has become averse to the genuine movement, which at one point it was known for, has completely vanished. And hence, the 250-350-plus run-chases have become so frequent and comparatively easy for England and in England.
After chasing down 371 with relative ease in Leeds, it was unsurprising that Stokes chose to bowl again in Birmingham after winning the toss, even though he had a bit of overcast conditions to rely on for his decision on Wednesday, July 2. Stokes also went with the history at Edgbaston, where the teams batting second have won on 23 occasions in 56 Tests at the venue, while 18 for the ones batting first. In the last five Edgbaston Tests, too, the pendulum is tilted heavily towards the teams chasing.
The result was arrived at on all five occasions and Australia in 2019 was the last time a team batting first won at Edgbaston. Steve Smith brought the house down in Birmingham in 2019 with a couple of 140s and Australia won the clash by a huge margin of 251 runs. Since then, the teams batting second - England (twice) and Australia and New Zealand once each have won at Edgbaston.
India was involved in one of those Test matches in 2022 - the rescheduled fifth match of the 2021-22 series - and were on the receiving end of a masterful run-chase by Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow of 378 runs - England's highest in Tests.
India are batting first again, three years later at the same venue, on a flattish surface with a depleted bowling attack. It's anybody's guess what score will be enough but India definitely would want to get something in excess of 450-500 to challenge England, or at least hope to challenge them.
