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Centuries from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow carried England to a historic seven-wicket win over India, completing their record-breaking 378-run chase in the first session of Day Five.
After successful fourth-innings pursuits of 277, 299 and 296 in the whitewash of New Zealand, England required their highest such recovery in Tests to take this rearranged fifth match against India.
But Root (142 not out) and Bairstow (114 no) had done much of the heavy lifting late on Monday at Edgbaston, allowing the home side's imperious duo to charge through Tuesday morning and improve their unbeaten partnership to an outstanding 269.
Meanwhile, India's head coach Rahul Dravid revealed the reason behind not playing Ravichandran Ashwin in the decisive fifth Test against England.
Ashwin's absence has been debated but Dravid defended the team's strategy.
"It's not easy to leave someone like Ash out in a Test match but when we looked at the wicket on first day, it had a pretty even covering of grass, and we felt that there was enough in it for the fast bowlers," Dravid explained the team's position.
Ashwin did not play a single Test against England. He was not considered by Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli last year and this year Rahul Dravid and Jasprit Bumrah left him out.
India went in with four pacers and only one spinner in all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja which many deemed a mistake by Jasprit Bumrah and coach Rahul Dravid.
"Also, if you see, wicket hasn't spun much either for Jack Leach or Ravi Jadeja, who bowled through the match. Weather also played a part as for first three days, there wasn't long phases of sunshine. Probably, it didn't spin as much as we expected it to." Dravid said that everything looks different in hindsight but reality is a bit different.
"It actually would have looked nice to have second spinner but it didn't turn enough to justify inclusion," he added.
