"We've seen with this England team that anything's possible" - Stuart Broad optimistic of victory in 2nd Ashes Test at Lord's
Veteran England seamer Stuart Broad has revealed that he and his team haven't stopped believing in themselves ahead of Day 5 of the second Ashes Test at Lord's. However, the 36-year-old has admitted that a couple of players must play out of their skins to get England over the line.
Chasing 371 for victory, the hosts endured a top-order wobble and found themselves at 45-4. England captain Ben Stokes and opener Ben Duckett joined hands to stitch an unbeaten 69-run partnership, leaving themselves with 257 more to get.
In his column for the Daily Mail, Broad pointed out that the current team has four of England's eight highest run-chases and claimed:
"A couple of our players are going have to play out of their skins today but we've seen with this England team that anything's possible and so we won’t stop believing that we can level this Ashes series. This team has four of England's eight highest fourth-innings run chases, and although we have not played as well against Australia this week as we would have liked there’s still a chance of making 1-1."
The Nottinghamshire man reminded readers of how England found their way back from 55-6 against New Zealand last year.
"At Leeds last year against New Zealand, we were 55 for six in the first innings - 274 runs behind - yet still managed to chase 300 to win, just three wickets down. We obviously had a clear plan of bowling bouncers and getting those eight wickets for 92 runs was reward for fully committing to the plan."
Despite crashing to 55-6 in response to New Zealand's first-innings total of 329, the home side made 360. England chased down 295 in the fourth innings with seven wickets to spare.
"Only the opinions of the dressing room’s inner sanctum matter" - Stuart Broad
Amid criticism regarding England's all-out aggressive approach, Broad claimed that what matters the most is the opinion of the people within the dressing room as they have seen the success within the past 14 months.
"One of the things that we stay strong about in the changing room is sticking to our beliefs. Only the opinions of the dressing room’s inner sanctum matter in terms of how we play and we have enough credit in the bank from what we have done over the past 14 months to know that this style of attacking cricket works for us."
Broad defended England's approach, claiming that they were in front for the most part at Edgbaston and that their aggressive approach is bound to hit a blip at some point.
"It worked for us at Edgbaston because we won pretty much every session there apart from the last one on the final day. We were ahead of the game but Australia got over the line. Yes, we were disappointed with Friday morning’s session when we lost six quick wickets for 47 runs, that goes without saying, but ultimately we have formed a mindset of attack — sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't."
Should England chase down 371, it will be the highest run-chase at Lord's. A lot will rely on Stokes.