• India are such a strong side, so it is quite staggering that England managed to make 378 — their highest chase in Tests and fourth of more than 275 in a row this summer — and draw the rearranged series 2-2.
• The pitch behaved itself entirely and there were very few rogue deliveries, but just the manner in which England attacked the target was extraordinary exhibition of confidence.
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England’s record run chase against India was up there as one of the best wins I have seen during my time as a Test Match Special commentator.
India are such a strong side, so it is quite staggering that England managed to make 378 — their highest chase in Tests and fourth of more than 275 in a row this summer — and draw the rearranged series 2-2.
There are some caveats because India were missing some players, with captain Rohit Sharma unavailable after a positive Covid-19 test in the week before the Test, while fellow opener KL Rahul is out with a sports hernia.
They also had little preparation with just a four-day game against Leicestershire as warm-up, with this Test being rearranged from September last year, as a result of Covid in the touring party.
You have to put all of this into the debate to balance it out, but India have got one of the best bowling attacks in the world and they’ve got fine batsmen.
For England to be able to attack as they have done, it really does make this very notable. They’ve been able to put pressure back on the bowlers and it puts the achievement right up there in the top bracket. The 2019 Ashes win at Headingley, where Ben Stokes crashed an unbeaten 135 as he and last man Jack Leach shared 76 for the final wicket, was obviously more dramatic than this one.
But to score that number of runs to win a Test match doesn’t happen too often — this was the ninth-largest chase in the history of the game.
The fact they managed to score the runs so easily and so quickly — at 4.93 runs an over — with only three wickets down is quite remarkable.
The pitch behaved itself entirely and there were very few rogue deliveries, but just the manner in which England attacked the target was an extraordinary exhibition of confidence. That’s what strikes me about the way that they are playing at the moment.
They were a team that had absolutely no confidence whatsoever in the winter — they were battered 4-0 by Australia in the Ashes and lost 1-0 to West Indies in March — and it is largely the same personnel playing.
What Brendon McCullum has done is exactly what we were hoping he would. He has been able to pick up these same players and erase recent painful memories. They have all lost the fear of failure and there is no longer the feeling of defeat being inevitable.
He’s managed to do all of that from a standing start and that’s what is exceptional. As a player, when you feel you’ve got that backing from the coach, management and selectors — and know you’re not going to get dropped for playing this way — it unleashes your attacking potential. It is very exciting.
We saw that with the way opener Alex Lees played — he surprised me. He wouldn’t normally play an attacking, free-flowing four or five-day game. To see him charging down the pitch third ball and hoicking Mohammed Shami over mid-wicket for four and then taking the attack to Ravindra Jadeja, who was bowling into the rough, his approach typifies the change in attitude.
Zak Crawley was able to take his time as a result and he definitely benefited.
It was interesting that the chase was basically a run-a-ball throughout apart from the third 50, during which England scored closer to a run every two balls. It was when Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow first came together after England had lost three wickets for two runs and it showed there is a necessity, even with the way they are playing, to take your time and get yourself in. It takes away any criticism about being reckless.
England have now set off on this new journey. When Stokes and McCullum first took their jobs it was about halting this massive tanker that was drifting out of control down the English Channel — they had to stop it, turn it round and steer it in the right direction. They’ve done more than that - it is full stream ahead, which is great.
It isn’t always going to be like this, they are going to have to adapt, and I’m sure they will.
I expect England to turn up for the three-Test series against South Africa in August, pick the same team and just carry on.
They’ll be expecting to deal with them in exactly the same way.