Ben Stokes cost England this Test ...Middle East

Of course, bettering the world-record Test chase by almost 200 runs was always an outlandish thought and so it proved.

I guess, as Ben Stokes has repeatedly told us over the past three years, the Bazballers really don’t do draws.

Trescothick attempted to downplay that narrative on Saturday evening, admitting a draw here would have been a “good result”.

Jamie Smith was the only England player to leave Edgbaston with credit (Photo: PA)

Despite this glitch in the Bazball matrix, India still pulled off their biggest-ever overseas Test win in terms of runs, needing just 52.1 overs on this final day to finagle the seven wickets required for victory.

Despite the dispiriting nature of this defeat, it should be noted this is the first England have suffered in a Test with the series still live since they lost to Pakistan in Multan nine months ago.

For every miraculous result such as the heist of Hyderabad in India early last year or chasing down 371 at Headingley last week, there have been horror shows worse than this under Stokes and McCullum. Two that immediately spring mind came last year – losing to India by 434 runs in Rajkot and to New Zealand by 423 in Hamilton.

After his first-innings golden duck, Pope fell in the fourth over of day five when he was bowled by the irrepressible Deep for 24. Despite a century at Headingley last week, Pope’s average in the second innings of Tests stands at just 20 across 58 matches.

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It won’t get any easier this week either with a buoyant India set to welcome back Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s No 1-ranked bowler, at Lord’s after he was rested here.

Ultimately, though, it was Stokes’ choice to bowl first at the toss that shaped the narrative of this contest. It might be simplistic to say that one call cost England this match. Yet there’s no doubt it gave India a chance to gain a foothold in the series after the galling nature of their defeat in the first Test.

It’s now up to England to wrest back that momentum at Lord’s, with the prospect of a completely refreshed bowling attack and the long-awaited return of Jofra Archer after four and a half years away from Test cricket promising another intriguing narrative shift in this action-packed series.

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