England is “about breaking records”, assistant coach Jeetan Patel said on Friday as the home team contemplates a huge run chase against Australia in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.
Ben Stokes’s side, who lost the first game of the five-match series last week, collapsed to 325 all out on Friday’s third morning in London, playing a series of rash shots.
Australia then reached 130-2 in its second innings to extend its lead to 221 runs despite some accurate bowling from the hosts.
Patel, England’s spin-bowling coach, was asked what would be a realistic target to chase for a side who have attacked relentlessly over the past year.
“We’ve seen some amazing things from this team,” he said. “It’s going to be a different ask against a different attack but we’ve seen some crazy things from this line-up in the last year.
“This team is about breaking records, they want to set new standards. They want to sell out grounds and the way to do that is firstly to bowl them out and set the crowd alight and then chase whatever it is down.”
England will take heart from a succession of improbable run chases under skipper Stokes, including its astonishing pursuit of 378 to beat India last year -- the highest successful chase in their history.
“We’ve always said that we want to play an aggressive brand,” said Patel. “It’s not always going to come off and that’s not a cop out. It’s just reality.
“They were pretty accurate with how they went about their plan.”
“We want to keep changing momentum,” he added. “We want to force swings in the game that come back our way a bit like you would see in white-ball cricket.”
Patel said the second Test was finely poised, even though Ashes-holder and world Test champion Australia appears to be clear favourite.
“The first session tomorrow (Saturday) is huge for both teams,” he added.
“If we can turn some of the skill that we showed tonight, tomorrow morning... we can bowl them out and give us a day and a half to chase something down.”
Australia paceman Mitchell Starc, who took 3-88 in England’s first innings, said the tourist had been successful with its tactic of bowling short.
“The four of us (fast bowlers) went about our business there being quite accurate and being up around the chest and shoulders,” he said.
“I don’t like to face that stuff so if it’s coming at a decent pace I’m not sure anybody does.
“They (England) are playing aggressive cricket. Their approach is their approach. We saw an opportunity there to create some chances, which we did.
“It doesn’t always go that way and thankfully more went to hand than to ground.”
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