England’s head coach Brendon McCullum has vowed to go even harder against Australia in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s despite the loss in the first. The former New Zealand captain also added that England’s efforts were top-notch and he hopes them to retain their confidence in the next match as well. However, Australia stunned England in the run-chase of 281 at Edgbaston despite losing eight wickets, with 72 still needed to win where Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon held their nerves to seal the deal.

Reacting to the two-wicket loss, McCullum said as quoted by the BBC, he said: “I’m sure they’ll stick to that strategy, which is great because we’ll go a little harder. The way that we played validated our style of play. If we’d have got a little bit of the rub of the green then we might have been on the other side of it. The guys are proud of the efforts that they put in and I’m sure we’ll go to Lord’s with a lot of confidence.”

However, England’s declaration of 393-8 in 78 overs on day one came under the scanner, especially with Joe Root batting on 118*. Ben Stokes later backed this, saying he doesn’t regret it at all. McCullum also said that if slight luck had gone England’s way, things might have been different as well. Notably, the second Test will start on Wednesday (June 28).

“We always want to try to take the game forward. We want to try to seize opportunities where we think we can put opposition teams under pressure. Obviously, you’d rather have won the game – that’s just the nature of sport sometimes. If we’d have got a little bit of the rub of the green then we might have been on the other side of it,” he concluded.