England skipper Joe Root has asserted that their victory in the sereis opener of the 5-match Test series, despite being “not at our best”, has energized the hosts with confidence as they prepare to take on India at Lord’s.
During the pre-match press conference, Root said, “It (the win at Birmingham) fills you with masses of confidence. One of the most exciting things about last week is that we weren’t at our best, certainly areas we can improve, but we found a way to win under pressure, and wrestle momentum back in our favor.”
Englan defeated India by a decent margin of 31 runs in a tight finish at the Edgbaston last week, taking a vital 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Having won just three out of their last nine Tests at Lord’s, England goes into this second game with a poor recent record.
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Talking about the same, the England captain said, “Every time you turn up here the surfaces can be quite different. We’ll have to wait to see what the surface looks like tomorrow morning but ultimately on the last couple of occasions, whoever has played well in the first innings has managed to contain that threat through the rest of the game. So we have to start well and try to stay on top if we can.”
Root also announced that 20-year-old Olliver Pope will make his Test debut and bat at number four. but he also revealed that the decision to play with a second spinner (Moeen Ali) or an extra pacer (Chris Woakes) is yet to be taken. He said, “With the surface as it is, having looked at it today, we’re going to leave it another 24 hours and then make a decision in the morning. We just want to make sure, be really clear, that going into the game we can be really confident we’ve got the best 11 players to take 20 wickets on that surface. So we’ll turn up tomorrow, see if it looks any different, and then make that decision.”
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Pope comes in place of dropped Dawid Malan, which means England will have a new slip cordon in place. England had dropped Virat Kohli thrice before he went on to score 149 in the first innings. Root said that it will be important to manage Kohli at the crease, he said, “Virat’s a fine player and it shows when you give the best players opportunities they don’t need many more. It was very skillful to be able to manipulate him off the strike and starve him of facing the majority of deliveries. Nice to know we are doing the right things, but it’s about taking those chances when they come.”
