England were bludgeoned away by Australia on the final day of the first Ashes Test but skipper Joe Root feels there’s no need to hit the panic button yet and the home team won’t be making too many changes for the second encounter at Lord’s.
James Anderson had only bowled four overs in the match before he injured his right calf and England missed him dearly throughout the course of the match. The hosts also lacked a tearaway paceman and someone like Jofra Archer could be included in the playing XI for the second Test.
“Hard losing Jimmy early on but these things happen. We have to see how Jofra shapes up as well. We don’t have to make any shotgun decisions in terms of selection, important we’re clear on how we want to go,” said Root after England lost the match by 251 runs and conceded a 1-0 lead to Australia.
England had Australia on the mat on the opening day of this Test after reducing them to 122 for 8 before Steve Smith came up with a solid knock of 144. If that wasn’t enough, the former Australia skipper followed it up with an innings of 142 in the second essay as well.
“It does hurt, bitterly disappointing, I thought we played some good cricket but credit to Australia. Two brilliant innings from Smith, we have to keep working hard on trying to get him out.”
“There was some high class bowling, we were made to work hard but I think you look further back in the Test match for where we lost it. We didn’t do it for long enough and didn’t take our chance.
“Give us a chance to get away, regroup, make sure this doesn’t have a hangover effect.”
