England head coach Brendon McCullum conceded that his team made a mistake in electing to bowl first in their second Test defeat to India at Edgbaston.
McCullum watched on as Akash Deep's maiden six-wicket haul in Test cricket sealed an emphatic 336-run victory for the tourists on Sunday.
England captain Ben Stokes chose to stick with his preferred tactic of chasing the game in the fourth innings, but that proved to come back and bite him this time around.
India piled up the runs in their first innings, plundering 587, led by Shubman Gill's 269, the third-highest score in Test cricket by any visiting captain against England in the format.
Jamie Smith's unbeaten 184 and Harry Brook's 158 gave England hope, but a scorecard that had six ducks saw the hosts 180 runs behind India ahead of their second innings.
Gill then scored 161 from 162 deliveries to give England a mammoth target of 608 for the win, a total they fell well short of thanks to Akash's brilliance with the ball.
McCullum, while aware England did not help themselves with bat or ball, acknowledged the first mistake was made at the toss.
"I think as the game unfolded we probably looked back on that toss and said 'did we miss an opportunity there?' and it's probably fair," McCullum told BBC Test Match Special.
"We didn't expect that the wicket would play quite as it did and hence we probably got it slightly wrong.
"But we did have them 200 for five, and we weren't able to capitalise on that position and when you win the toss and bowl you're hoping to, well, you're not anticipating the opposition's going to score 580 and then from that point we're behind the game.
"It was only a brilliant partnership from Jamie Smith and Harry Brook which gave us any balance in the game throughout the five days. That's something we've got to look at.
"We're not rigid with our plans. It's just we thought this pitch might get better to bat on as we went through the five days but as we saw it didn't."
The result saw England concede 1,000 runs in the format for the third time, but the first since 1939 when they shipped 1,011 against South Africa.
McCullum suggested that the way the pitch was playing by the end of the day was similar to the surfaces seen in India, which helped benefit the tourists.
And with Gill confirming that star bowler Jasprit Bumrah would return for the third Test at Lord's, McCullum hopes a wiser display will come off the back of this experience.
"I thought Akash Deep bowled outstandingly on that surface," McCullum said. "Obviously growing up playing on those types of wickets, he hit his length and was able to utilise the surface where he could.
"He was exceptional. Bumrah will more than likely come back in for the next one so we've just got to make sure we're well planned and well prepared and ready for the next challenge. It will be quite different I imagine to this surface and that's probably a good thing for us.
"We ran second for five days. I thought India played exceptionally well. Shubman Gill was at an elite level and played brilliantly on this pitch. We weren't quite able to play how we wanted to on it and they thoroughly deserved to win."
Rather than blame the toss, Stokes pointed to England's inability to knock over India's lower order in the first innings, where they recovered from 211-5.
"No-one's got a crystal ball, no-one really knows what a wicket's going to do," Stokes said.
"Having them 211-5, we were happy there - even five down at the end of day one.
"We just weren't able to bust them open. We had a chance to potentially bowl them out for under 350 on that wicket, which would have been a good effort."
Stokes added that he was not concerned by his bowlers, but England have responded by adding Gus Atkinson to their ranks.
Atkinson missed the first two Tests with a hamstring injury. Jofra Archer could also feature in his first match in the format for four years this Thursday.
