Strauss: We’ve learnt our lessons

"On that first day there were a fair amount of nerves in our dressing room because of the length of the build-up and the fact it is a very different series to other series we play in," admitted Andrew Strauss.

"There will be quite a few guys who are relieved it’s up and running now. We’ve seen the Aussie batsmen, seen the Aussie bowlers and now it’s a case of just knuckling down and playing cricket.

"We had some good passages of play in that Test match but not enough of them and we gave them opportunities when we shouldn’t have done.

"We’ve learnt lessons from that and we’ve got a little bit of momentum from that fifth day which we are looking to build on in the first couple of days in this Test match."

Strauss said: "You can take a lot from performances like that, rearguard actions. As captain of the England side I’m very happy with the fight we showed in the latter half of that day.

"I think that’s a huge attribute to have as a side, probably more important than any other attribute you have as a side really and we are going to need to display more of that this week."

"Logically, you can’t see any reason why that should continue and I don’t think it’s been mentioned in our dressing room at all," added Strauss. "Hopefully, that record will be put right.

"Playing in an Ashes Test match is special and playing in a Lord’s Test match is very special for similar reasons – the history, the tradition, the number of great players that have played here before and it is the ‘home of cricket’.

"As England players it inspires us. Most recently we have played some good cricket here. There have been a lot of draws because it is usually a very flat wicket but if you look at our honours boards we’ve scored a lot of hundreds here. It’s going to be a wicket where a lot of patience and discipline will be required."