Veteran Australian left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc has admitted that they are open to attacking England’s batters with their short-pitched deliveries in the second innings as well. He said after the hosts lost six for 47 on Day 3 of the Lord’s Test to bundled out for 325 in their first innings on Friday, June 30 as well. However, despite losing the first Test, England played with an aggressive approach on Day 3 as well.

Speaking at the end of the day’s play, Starc, who returned with the figures of 3/88, said: “They [England] want to play aggressive cricket, as they’ve said for a period of time now. It’s just about finding ways to counteract that or to continue to create chances. We were quite accurate and saw an opportunity if they wanted to take it on. We had fields in positions where if chances were created, hopefully they went to hand. It’s worked for one innings. It’s got potential to work again if we need to call on it.”

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Mitchell Starc, however, added that whether they stick to the same game plan or not that will depend on the wicket as well.

He said: “We’ll see how the wicket reacts in the next couple of days. It’s not playing a whole lot of tricks, but it’s been quite inconsistent and maybe getting a gauge of the speed of ball-to-bat can be a bit difficult. So it could potentially be a ploy. We’ve now tried it and had a bit of success with the way they played it, so could call on that again, either this game or throughout the series.”

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“I’m not sure if there is any more weather around the next couple of days but first thing’s first, build that lead. Fortunately, we’ve got someone like Travis Head who can play a role for us [as a spinner]. If we can do the bulk of the work with seamers and then Trav can fill in when he needs to,” Mitchell Starc concluded.