England look to bounce back at Edgbaston

BIRMINGHAM, July 28 

England want to bounce back from a disastrous showing at Lord’s by playing well enough to get a special Edgbaston crowd on their side in the third Ashes Test against Australia, said captain Alastair Cook.

Cook’s team were humiliated by 405 runs in the second Test at Lord’s as Australia levelled the five-match series 1-1. “The crowd really get behind us here,” Cook told a news conference today. “If we get on top we feel as if we’ve got an extra man playing for us because of the noise. It’s almost a different atmosphere to anywhere else we play. We are 1-1 in an Ashes series coming to Edgbaston, a fantastic ground where we know that if we play good cricket the crowd will get behind us.

“Lord’s was an absolute disaster but that’s gone. It’s like a three-game series now and we need to win two of them to create something really special,” Cook said.

England have rejigged their lineup, bringing in batsman Jonny Bairstow for Gary Ballance, and may also need to call up paceman Steven Finn in place of Mark Wood who has an ankle problem. — Reuters