After a match that witnessed a record 1692 runs being scored on arguably one of the flattest pitches served out in the country in the 21st century, England captain Ben Stokes said the Edgbaston strip ended up suiting India more, progressively displaying “sub-continent” traits before their 336-run defeat on day five in Birmingham on Sunday.
Only once has a Test match seen more runs in England, with Cricviz analysts ranking the Edgbaston surface as the fourth flattest Test pitch in England since records began in 2005.
Despite putting on a rapid 407 with a run rate over 4.50 in reply to India’s first-innings 587 after opting to bowl first, Stokes and Co. were blunted by the Indian batters, led by captain Shubman Gill. The 25-year-old Punjab batter ended up becoming the first batter in Test history to record a 250 and a 150 in the same match, totalling 430 runs, the second-highest match aggregate for a player in history.
England’s Bazballers were eventually exposed, not just by the sheer weight of runs India amassed – the 1014 runs in two innings being the highest-ever recorded by the side in 591 Tests. The glaring gulf between the pace attacks of both teams meant India had enough quality in their attack to pick all 20 wickets, becoming only the second team in Test history after Australia (in 1938, 1969) to register 1000 runs and pick up all 20 wickets in a match. Led by Akash Deep’s 10-wicket match haul and Mohammed Siraj’s first-innings six-for, India seamers picked up 17 wickets to England pacer’s eight in the match.
‘Sub-continent pitch’
When quizzed on the Test Match Special, if England wanted to continue playing on such flat-bed surfaces, Stokes countered that the conditions ended up mirroring pitches in India, which suited the visitors.
“To be honest, it’s probably ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch as it got deeper and deeper into the game. There was certainly a little bit in it to start off with and I think we exposed that very very well early on,” said Stokes.
🗣 “It ended up being more of a subcontinent pitch.”
Ben Stokes thinks the Edgbaston pitch didn’t really suit his England side. #ENGvIND #BBCCricket pic.twitter.com/EnG7uZi6Az
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) July 6, 2025
After having India at 211 at five in the first innings, England ended up conceding 376 runs more in the innings as Gill recorded his career-best score of 269 with steady hands from Ravindra Jadeja (89) and Washington Sundar (42).
“Then just as it sort of got deeper and deeper, it just became a real tough slug for us and obviously with the Indian attack and the conditions that they’re used to, they were sort of used to and knew sort of how to expose those conditions just sort of a little bit better than us and that can happen sometimes. But yeah, it’s nothing to be too disheartened about. We can take being out-skilled and we’ve certainly been out-skilled this week,” said Stokes.
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McCullum rues toss call
England head coach Brendon McCullum, meanwhile, rued the team’s decision to bowl first.
“I think, as the game unfolded, we probably looked back on that toss and said did we miss an opportunity there and it’s probably fair. We didn’t expect that the wicket would play quite as it did and hence we probably got it slightly wrong. But we did have them 200 for 5 and we weren’t able to capitalise on that position and when you win the toss and bowl you’re hoping to, well you’re not anticipating the opposition’s going to score 580 and then from that point we’re behind the game,” McCullum told reporters.
India and England will square off in the third Test at Lord’s, starting Thursday.
