Ashes - Not spectacle, they must prioritise winning: Mark Butcher on how England should approach Lord's Test

Former England batter Mark Butcher feels the hosts must prioritise winning the next Test at the Lord’s, and not just concentrate on endorsing their brand of cricket following Edgbaston loss. The narrow two-wicket-defeat at the hands of Australia in the first Test dented England’s winning run under new boss Brendon McCullum and Captain Ben Stokes, and Butcher feels England must look to win only.

Writing for Sky Sports, Butcher penned England did go into this series with a feel-good-factor given how successful ‘Bazball’ was in the past year, but after suffering early jitters in the home Ashes this time, they must rework their applauded strategy of going ultra-attacking and look out to even the score in London.

“You go into every series optimistic. That was certainly the case going into this Ashes series, that groundswell of feel-good factor, given the way that England have played… and then, all of a sudden, you get that reversal in terms of the result at Edgbaston.

“Amazing viewing though it was, one of the reasons why I was disappointed at the back end of the Test match was because this is Ashes cricket - it's about winning, and that's the end of it,” Butcher wrote for Sky Sports.

Butcher, who, during his playing days, mostly remained on the receiving end of things, said the spectacle is fineas long as the team is winning. He, however, differed from McCullum’s view of entertaining people through Bazball and not bothering too much about the result.

“I spent an enormous amount of my career, nearly all of it in fact, getting beaten by Australian teams with no mercy. So the idea that you would almost offer up some sort of spectacle for people, with the result not mattering too much, it doesn't sit very well with me,” Butcher wrote.

‘Get ready for some heat at Lord’s

Besides Australia winning the first Test, verbal brawls, including Ollie Robinson and Usman Khawaja, made headlines too. With things already getting heated up from both ends, Butches writes he won't get surprised to see more sledges from either team.

The left-handed batter, fondly remembered for his match-winning 173* against Australia in Leeds in 2001, thinks England might not change their approach heading into the second Test but could be cautious this time.

“I don't expect England to go about things any differently at Lord's, though I think they may be a little chastened by what happened at Edgbaston.

I doubt that they would admit that publicly, but I think they may be a little wiser after the event and adopt a slightly more hard-nosed approach. I think the temperature might go up a little bit on the field, from the players on both sides, for the second Test,” he wrote.

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