Marcus Trescothick insists his England team-mates did not celebrate Glenn McGrath’s infamous injury just hours before the start of the second Test during the 2005 Ashes series.
McGrath was at the peak of his powers when Australia toured England 15 years ago and took nine wickets in the first Test at Lord’s to help the Baggy Green secure an emphatic 239-run victory.
In a cruel twist of fate, McGrath stepped on a cricket ball ahead of the first day’s play at Edgbaston a week later and was ruled out of the match.
Despite the absence of his star fast bowler, Australia captain Ricky Ponting elected to bowl first after winning the toss but was left to rue the decision as England scored more than 400 runs in less than 80 overs on a extraordinary opening day.
Michael Vaughan’s side went on to win the match, which is widely regarded as one of the best in the history of Test cricket, and later that summer reclaimed the Ashes.
Reflecting on the Edgbaston Test and McGrath’s freak injury, England opener Trescothick said: ‘I don’t think any of us actually saw him fall over the ball but we saw the aftermath.
‘We were warming up and someone pointed it out and said, “Look, McGrath is down, what’s going on?” Then all the commotion happened with the cart coming on to take him off.
‘No one actually saw it happen, you’re trying focus on your own game as much as you can.’
Asked whether there were muted celebrations from within the England camp, Trescothick responded: ‘I don’t think you can ever get too caught up like that. I don’t think you ever think, “great, this bloke’s injured”.
‘When you know they’re not playing, maybe that gives you a little bit of inspiration because you know how important he was to their team and their attack.
‘But I don’t think you can ever say you were thinking, “please be injured, out of the game and out of the series”.’
Trescothick led from the front for England at Edgbaston, smashing 90 off 102 balls and setting the platform which allowed the hosts to take control of the match.
The England hero added to Sky Sports: ‘We had a bit of a rest after the Lord’s Test match and as a group we talked about getting back to the way we had played over the last 18 months.
‘We wanted to be aggressive and take the game to them. Everything from then on worked in our favour.
‘In Shane Warne’s first over I whacked him back over his head and quite a lot of that was just adrenaline. We wanted to put them under pressure and we did that.’
Asked about Ponting’s decision to bowl at Edgbaston, Trescothick said: ‘We were definitely going to bat [if England won the toss].
‘We were watching the toss on TV in the changing room and Ponting decided to bowl. I remember looking at Straussy and we were both surprised but knew it was good news for us.’
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