Hats off to Rishabh Pant, but we are not scared: England assistant coach Collingwood

PTI

Birmingham, July 2

Rishabh Pant's stunning innings of 146 may have put them on the back-foot but England assistant coach Paul Collingwood said the home team is not "scared" and will fight back in the rescheduled fifth Test here.

Coming out to bat when India were at 98 for 5, Pant played a knock for the ages to turn the tables on England and take India to a challenging 338 for 7 at stumps on Friday. His stunning 111-ball innings had 19 boundaries and four sixes.

But Collingwood said England were not intimidated by India's remarkable recovery as they were used to chasing big totals in the fourth innings in recent times.

"I don't feel our backs were against the wall for too long, but hats off to the way Pant played. When you're up against world-class players, they can do world-class things," Collingwood was quoted as saying by the media here after the first day's play.

"We're not scared of what we need to chase in the fourth innings. The way we played in the three games against New Zealand showed we're not overawed by what the opposition are going to get in the first innings."

England chased down fourth-innings totals in excess of 250 on three occasions in their 3-0 series win over New Zealand.

"We're not playing conventional Test cricket. We're trying to be as attacking as possible and looking to take wickets with the field placings," said Collingwood, who played 68 Tests for England.

"We're not always trying to stem the flow and keep the run-rate down. We want to be on the more aggressive side of the line. We can be happy with this day's work and getting them for anything under 360-370 would be a good result for us."     

He said the manner of the three wins over the Black Caps -- England batted second on all three occasions -- had an influence in Stokes' decision to field first against India.

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