England not haunted by Lord’s defeat, set to fight back in Ashes’ 3rd Test at Edgbaston

LONDON (Reuters) – Being humiliated by 405 runs in the second Ashes Test by Australia was a setback, but England will not dwell on it when the third Test gets underway at Edgbaston on Wednesday, said fast bowler Stuart Broad.

England won the first Test in Cardiff by 169 runs in a near-perfect performance, but a resurgent Australia crushed the host in the second Test at Lord’s to level the series.

“In Ashes series it’s so crucial to be mentally and physically fresh,” Broad told the Telegraph .

“It’s crucial that we don’t get to Edgbaston still hung over or fearing what happened at Lord’s. We need to be quite clear that we performed badly, but this is a new week.”

Australian fast bowler Mitchell Johnson finished with match figures of six for 80 at Lord’s, but the 29-year-old Broad believes England was at fault for the manner of the dismissals.

“In the first innings especially, the 10 wickets we lost, they weren’t good balls,” he said. “We gave them 10 wickets, and in test match cricket you’ve got to make teams work hard for their wickets.”

England has brought in batsman Jonny Bairstow to replace his Yorkshire teammate Gary Ballance in the only change to the squad.

Ian Bell will move up the order to bat at number three, followed by Joe Root, with Bairstow coming in at five for the Edgbaston Test.

For Australia, opening batsman Chris Rogers has survived a stiff examination from his bowling teammates in the nets, but expects England’s pacemen to come even harder at him in the wake of his dizzy spell that forced him to retire at Lord’s.

The 37-year-old lefthander is on track to pad up for the third Test barring a return of the symptoms that cut short his second innings on 49.

Rogers feared he had suffered another bout of concussion following the head knock at training that ruled him out of both Tests against West Indies, but subsequent tests showed it was an inner ear issue.

In career-best form, Rogers smashed 173 in the first innings of Australia’s emphatic win at Lord’s .

Also, Peter Nevill has got the nod ahead of Brad Haddin as Australia’s wicketkeeper for the third Test, captain Michael Clarke confirmed on Tuesday.

Haddin, 37, quit one-day-internationals after Australia’s World Cup victory at home in March and the snub might push him closer to international retirement. He played the opening Ashes Test in Cardiff, but sat out the second test at Lord’s due to family reasons.

That paved the way for Nevill to make an impressive debut in Australia’s series-leveling win, during which the 29-year-old took seven catches and scored a brisk 45 in the first innings.

Broad is confident playing the third Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham and the fourth Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham will play into England’s hands.

“Let’s not forget that Edgbaston and Trent Bridge are two fantastic grounds for the England cricket team,” he said. “We should have a lot of confidence. The last Test I played at Edgbaston, Cooky [Alastair Cook] got 294 against India in 2011 and we won by an innings.

“It’s a huge week. I read somewhere that England haven’t won the third Ashes Test since 1981, which has got to change.

“A lot has been written this week about it being the end of the world, like we’re losing 10-0.

“But actually, it’s 1-1. They’ve played fantastically one week, we’ve played fantastically one week. Let battle commence.”