England skipper Joe Root has said that their victory in the seesawing first Test, despite being "not at our best", has energised the hosts with confidence as they prepare to take on India at Lord's tomorrow.
"It (the win at Birmingham) fills you with masses of confidence. One of the most exciting things about last week is that we weren't at our best, certainly areas we can improve, but we found a way to win under pressure, and wrestle momentum back in our favour," Root said at the pre-match press conference on the eve of the second Test.
Hosts England prevailed over India by 31 runs in a tight finish at the Edgbaston last week, taking a vital 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
"That's a sign of some strong characters in our dressing room. And having had some indifferent results in the recent past, to pull off a win like that is a really good sign for us moving forward.
"If we can make small improvements in certain areas, and add that to where we were good last week, we will see some improvements from last week."
"Every time you turn up here the surfaces can be quite different. At the start of the summer we were below par and it would be easy to look too far into that, but against South Africa there was a lot of spin and against India (in 2014) spin came into it a lot in the second innings. That might play a big factor
"We've prepared as much as possible and feel like we're in a good position coming into the game. Opposition players are allowed to play well and they definitely did that at Edgbaston, so it's just about combatting that as a team and making sure that when we get our opportunities to go big, someone takes the game by the scruff of the neck."
"It's a crucial part of Test cricket, especially India being such a good side you have to take those chances."
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