Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson insist England will go even harder at Lord’s

England’s star pace duo Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson have insisted that the team will go even harder at Australia in this week’s second Test at Lord’s despite the crushing two-wicket defeat at Edgbaston.

The legendary opening bowling attack have a combined 1,274 Test wickets including playing in the last nine Ashes series together, and are adamant that England will not take a backward step at the home of cricket.

Their ‘Bazball’ approach came in for criticism after captain Ben Stokes declared on day one while Joe Root was well set on 118 not out, with former England skipper Kevin Pietersen saying he would never have declared and questioning ‘how extremely positive this approach actually is’.

But writing in Mail Sport today, Broad hit back: ‘What do we need to do differently this week? Attack even more.

‘We’ll hit more boundaries and hopefully the pitch is truer so we can hit through the line a bit when batting and have justification for slip fielders when we bowl.

Australia pulled off a thrilling two-wicket win in the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston

England were on the front foot for most of the Test, and Stuart Broad expects the team to attack even more in the second Test this week

Jimmy Anderson has also backed the team to be more positive when they play at Lord’s

‘I know we lost a Test but just being around London the last few days I’ve not heard any sort of anger or disappointment. People that have spoken to me have been very much: “What a match! How fun was that? The tension, the nerves. The cricket was amazing”.

‘What I would say to anyone questioning our style of play is that it has worked for a year. Always looking for the positive option has been a hallmark for a long period of time and the team really thrives playing this way.’

Anderson, who took just one wicket at Edgbaston and admitted he did not enjoy a single over he bowled in the first Test, backed Broad, and declared that a 4-1 victory is still on the cards if they can work out the final few kinks in their play.

‘I think we’ll go more positive if anything,’ said the 40-year-old. ‘We’ll try to be more positive, more aggressive, more entertaining. We’ll try to make sure people go home happy as they did each day at Edgbaston. Just because we’re 1-0 down doesn’t mean we’re going to try anything different.

‘We showed enough last week that we can win the next four if we keep playing like that and just iron a few things out. We’ll play exactly the same if not harder.’

Anderson and Broad are first and second on the Lord’s Test wickets leaderboard with 117 and 108 respectively and are set to spearhead the attack again there starting on Wednesday.

Moeen Ali, the main injury worry from the first Test with a blister on his spinning finger, has recovered and is hopeful of declaring himself fit again – despite getting through almost twice as many overs in Birmingham (47) as he did in his entire Indian Premier League stint from March to May (26).