England captain Ben Stokes has called the Edgbaston surface a “subcontinent pitch,” and now coach Brendon McCullum has joined the bandwagon, asking for “more bounce and pace” from the Lord’s pitch, where the third Test will be played starting Thursday.“Something with a bit more pace, a bit more bounce, and maybe a little bit of sideways, hopefully,” McCullum was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
India hammered England by 337 runs in the second Test to level the five-match series 1-1.England have added Gus Atkinson to their squad, and there are high chances that Jofra Archer, too, will make a comeback in Test cricket after a gap of four years.Meanwhile, the England coach also admitted that they misread the Edgbaston pitch and lauded Indian bowlers for making the most out of a “subcontinent-type” pitch.“Obviously we made the decision to bowl first,” he said.“We were thinking that the pitch would get better as the game went on, and we probably got that one wrong. We saw that it was probably more of a subcontinent-type pitch, and I thought India were exceptional.“They played brilliantly with the bat in hand. Shubman Gill was batting at an elite level.“Obviously, the way they bowled — Akash Deep in particular — they’ve grown up playing on those sorts of surfaces, where you’ve got to slam that slightly fuller length, and us bowling first presented them with those opportunities.“Obviously, the footmarks started to create some issues as well. You don’t always get every decision right.”
