Reuters
[Source: Reuters Sports]
England will not change their attacking philosophy in the second Ashes test against Australia at Lord’s this week despite falling agonisingly short in a thriller at Edgbaston, vice-captain Ollie Pope said.
Australia weathered England’s Bazball approach — the gung-ho style masterminded by coach Brendon McCullum and adopted to great effect by Ben Stokes’s team — and squeezed home by two wickets.
While generally applauded, some have criticised England’s decision to declare with two wickets standing on a frenetic opening day, and the way they lost wickets on day four as they set Australia a total of 281 for victory.
England’s best batsman Joe Root was stumped charging down the pitch at Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon having scored 46 from 55 balls in the second innings and other batters made good starts but failed to cash in.
Another defeat at Lord’s would leave England’s hopes of reclaiming the Ashes hanging by a thread and facing a first home series defeat by Australia since 2001.
Lord’s is traditionally a seamer-friendly pitch but spin is likely to come into play as it did at Edgbaston and Pope offered some good news on off-spinner Moeen Ali’s finger.
Moeen suffered a cut at Edgbaston and was hampered in Australia’s second innings when he took one wicket for 57 in 14 overs, with Root eventually taking over spin duties.
England have called in 18-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed as a possible replacement for Moeen.
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