Interim coach Trescothick hopes for unchanged lineup
England secured series win over Pakistan on Sunday
Marcus Trescothick is determined to sign off as England’s interim head coach with a 100% record and has no plans to meddle with a winning formula in next week’s final Test of the summer, despite securing the series win by beating Pakistan at Lord’s.
Two successful games into a series, the most likely cause of a lineup change would be fatigue, but Pakistan have not forced England to toil unduly over their two wins – last summer the average India innings lasted 107.5 overs; this summer Pakistan’s figure is 43.3. Meanwhile winning the second Test on day four means the players have nine clear days before action resumes at Edgbaston.
“First and foremost I want to win the series 3-0, and if you’re going to do that you want to play the most consistent team possible,” Trescothick said. “We’ve got to see how they all pull up from this game, and they’ve got four or five days now of break, which they’ve not had for a good period of time because the schedule has been so busy. Once we know that we’ll be able to make that decision.
“We made a big decision throughout the course of this season with the white-ball players to really ram home opportunities when you get the chance, and we want to try to continue that. So it’s not a case of we’re going to ease off the gas. We want to go there and win the series 3-0, and that is exactly what I’ll be telling the players when we’re prepping, [to keep] the hunger and desire to keep driving forward even when you’ve had success.”
While England wrapped up victory in the opening Test inside three days, and Lord’s underlined its recent reputation as a difficult ground for batting, they will remember that their last visit to Edgbaston followed a different script. Last summer India scored 1014 runs there, their highest aggregate in a Test.
“That was the XI we wanted for that [Lord’s] pitch, but that’s always the beauty of having a squad – that you can chop and change. Horses for courses, if you want to put it that way,” Trescothick said. “I think we’ll see once we get up there and know what the pitch is going to be like. I’m expecting it to be different to the conditions we’ve had in the last two games – as we’ve seen when we played India last summer, it was a pitch for many more runs. Once we get a bit more information on the lads and then see the conditions, then we can make better decisions.”
England’s four-pronged seam attack of Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson have impressed in the last two games, and Trescothick believes they will become more potent with more time spent playing together. “I think we’re building an attack in four people, and a few guys backing it up, with pace and skill around it,” he said. “The more Test matches they all gain together, the better opportunity we’ve got when you go to more challenging conditions, and away from home in particular. No doubt next summer when we come back here for the Ashes they’ll be in a much better position than what they’ve been for the last couple of years.
“We’ve a good contrast in what we’re trying to do at the moment. What we have is three guys bowling at 92mph, which is really nice to have in your armoury. And the more they play together, and the more experience everyone gets together, then it sort of fits into place how you want it to be. I’m enjoying the fact that we’ve got four who are match-fit at the moment, and a few behind it that we’re starting to get ready.”
