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India vs England: England won Edgbaston Test despite being not at their best - Joe Root
England prevailed over India by 31 runs in a tight finish at the Edgbaston last week, taking a vital 1-0 lead in the five-match series but Joe Root believes that they were nowhere near their ‘best’.
England skipper Joe Root has said that their victory in the seesawing first Test, despite being “not at our best”, has energised the hosts with confidence as they prepare to take on India at Lord’s.
“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 favour,” Root said at the pre-match press conference on the eve of the second Test.
Hosts England prevailed over India by 31 runs in a tight finish at the Edgbaston last week, taking a vital 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
“That’s a sign of some strong characters in our dressing room. And having had some indifferent results in the recent past, to pull off a win like that is a really good sign for us moving forward.
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“If we can make small improvements in certain areas, and add that to where we were good last week, we will see some improvements from last week.”
Having won just three out of their last nine Tests here, England go into this second game with a poor recent record.
“Every time you turn up here the surfaces can be quite different. At the start of the summer we were below par and it would be easy to look too far into that, but against South Africa there was a lot of spin and against India (in 2014) spin came into it a lot in the second innings. That might play a big factor
“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,” he said.
It was also announced that 20-year-old Olliver Pope will make his Test debut and bat at number four. Root will wait until toss to decide whether to play a second spinner (Moeen Ali) or an extra pacer (Chris Woakes).
