Trescothick: Draw is a good result for England

England have conceded that securing only their second draw in the last three years would represent a good result at Edgbaston after India exerted their dominance on day four. Marcus Trescothick, their assistant coach, refused to rule out an early win but hinted that England would have to "adapt" with 536 more runs required and seven wickets in hand on the final day.

Supporters in the Eric Hollies Stand sang "stand up if you still believe" during the final hour of play on Saturday, and Trescothick said, smiling, that England's coaching staff joined them in rising to their feet. "That's the position of the team: we are always trying to be as positive as we can," he said.

"We all probably appreciate that it's a hell of a lot of runs to try and score. It's 550 [536] tomorrow and I don't think we've seen scoring rates quite that quick in a day, so of course it will be challenging. But we've probably about another 10 to 15 overs of the balls at the hardest point before it gets a little bit soft, and then we'll see how we're going from that point, really."

Asked if a draw could be considered a good result, Trescothick said: "Whenever the situation is changing, of course it is. When you get to the point that you can [only] draw the game, of course.

"We're not stupid enough to [think] that you have to just win or lose. There are three results possible in every game that you play. But we have done some things in our time that are different to what we've done before."

Trescothick also claimed, despite repeated public statements to the contrary from players and staff, that England's disavowal of the draw under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum's leadership was the result of the media's "perception" rather than an accurate reflection of the team's attitude.

"This has kind of built up away from probably what the changing room messages are," he said. "You guys have a perception of what you think goes on in the changing room, and we obviously understand it a little bit more [than] the perception of what we're trying to do.

"We're trying to give the players the best opportunity to win games every time that we go out to play, and then if we can't do that, then we try and adapt accordingly, and plan ahead to what we're going to try and do."

England scored at 4.5 runs per over on the fourth evening and would need to score even faster throughout day five to pull off a world-record run chase of 608. It would be an unprecedented achievement, but Trescothick said that there would be no talk of survival or digging in for a draw within the dressing room.

"I don't think we use that sort of language," he said. "It's not the sort of changing room that we are. We're not naive enough to know (sic) that it's a very challenging total… Do you just go in your bunker and just sort of dig it out? Some players may do that.

"You just don't know really, and it's [up to] individuals that can adapt to the game and understand what's happening. But you've got to understand our changing room is a different type of culture in terms of what we've done in the past."

Morne Morkel, India's bowling coach, suggested that England's attacking approach could play into his team's favour on the final day. "It's definitely going to be an exciting day of cricket. Harry [Brook] did say last night in the media that they're going to chase or go at everything or anything that we set for them.

"They're attacking players. That's their brand of cricket they want to play. They probably might have a go at it for a while and then reassess, but I think we are in for an exciting day of cricket. It's still fast-scoring, the wicket is still playing nicely, so let's see what tomorrow brings."

Asked if India's relatively late declaration reflected a sense that India's players and staff were genuinely worried that England could chase down their target, Morkel laughed. "Worried? No. Not really," he said, adding: "If a team scores 500-plus on the final day then they deserve to win."