Marcus Trescothick has admitted that England "probably [did] not" have appropriate preparation before heading into the first Test of the LV= Insurance series against India at Trent Bridge.
England were dismissed for just 183 on Wednesday, with only Joe Root reaching 30. And with several of England top-order batters having not played a first-class match since the end of their series against New Zealand in early June and a couple of others having not played since the tour of India at the start of the year, it left Trescothick, one of the team's batting coaches, facing questions about the team's preparation heading into the series. While clearly in an awkward position considering his role with the ECB, Trescothick was honest in his assessment.
"It's probably not [appropriate preparation], no," Trescothcik admitted. "Of course you would want them to play a certain amount of red-ball cricket going into it. Scheduling is always an issue.
"We'd love to get more time into them at the crease: bowling with the red ball; facing the red ball. We'd love the preparation to be slightly better. But it's not the way it is, so you have to get into it in a different fashion.
"We all appreciate that trying to get all the cricket in across the whole summer - county teams, The Hundred, all these competitions going on - there's no easy solution to get this right and something always has to give.
"As coaches, we accept that is the way it is but we cannot sit back and just because we haven't had the prep that it isn't going to work.
"If we could get a couple of periods of time where we could get a red-ball game before [a Test series], then excellent. But quite often you go into Test series knowing that you're coming off the back of a white-ball competition. That's just the way international cricket is and you have to find your way as an international player to make that work. We don't want to use it as an excuse."
Trescothick was also full of praise for an India attack which he rated the "most potent" they had possessed for years. Recognising that they were able to omit a bowler as skilful as R Ashwin, he praised their quality and depth.
"They are the most potent in comparison to where they have been for the past few years," he said. "They have a lot of bases covered. You can see the guys are not playing, how much quality they have also.
"They have a good stock currently. They don't get to the World Test Championship final for no reason. We saw them go to Australia and perform there, so it's no surprise to us. It's just challenging and we know it's a real contest, we have to raise our game to match up against their skills. We have that ability, it's just making sure we do it better than we have done today.
"Of course we're disappointed not to get more runs on the board. There were times we were playing well and getting right on top of the game and then obviously we lost wickets in clusters so it turned on its head quite quickly.
"But I'm not worried. I see these guys play and practise and you see the talent they have. We've got to keep remaining positive. Today has not been the ideal day, of course, not but that doesn't define how the rest of the game or the rest of the series is going to go.
"We'll go away, lick our wounds and find a way to try and get back in the game."