England paceman Stuart Broad insists the team's crushing 405-run defeat by Australia in the second Ashes Test at Lord's last week was not "the end of the world". The teams head to Edgbaston for the third Test of a five-match series starting on Wednesday with Australia - looking to win their first Ashes campaign in Britain since 2001 - widely regarded as having the edge.
But Broad, 29, said there was no reason why England, who won the first Test in Cardiff by 169 runs, could not bounce back at Edgbaston. "A lot has been written this week about it being the end of the world, like we're losing 10-0," Broad told Britain's Daily Telegraph on Saturday. "But actually, it's 1-1. They've played fantastically one week, we've played fantastically one week." Broad, a three-time Ashes winner, said England needed to forget about their humiliation at Lord's.
"It's crucial that we don't get to Edgbaston still hung over or fearing what happened at Lord's," he said. "We need to be quite clear that we performed badly, but this is a new week." Australia's Mitchell Johnson took six for 80 at Lord's, reviving memories of how the left-arm fast bowler captured 37 wickets during his side's 5-0 home Ashes rout of England in 2013/14.
Broad, however, said England were largely responsible for the way in which they were dismissed. "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," the 29-year-old added. England have called up batsman Jonny Bairstow to replace Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance in what is set to be the only change to the team that played at Lord's.
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