Brydon Carse: Attritional Lord's win proves this England team can adapt

Brydon Carse says that England's attritional approach to victory in last week's pulsating Lord's Test has shown how the team is willing to adapt its familiar free-flowing style in pursuit of glory against India and Australia this year.

Carse contributed a vital half-century in England's atypically slow-paced first innings of 387, which came at a run rate of 3.44 across 112.3 overs. He then claimed 3 for 118 across India's two innings, including a pivotal two-wicket burst late on the fourth evening, when he utilised the Lord's slope to perfection to trap Karun Nair and Shubman Gill lbw from the Pavilion End.

"The atmosphere was incredible, the adrenaline was flowing," Carse told ESPNcricinfo. "It was an incredibly crucial stage of the game that I was desperate to make an impact in, and I felt in good rhythm bowling that evening.

"To be able to pick up a couple of wickets in that spell and put the momentum back into our hands going into day five was incredibly satisfying. At times, over the course of the series so far, I feel like I've been bowling well and maybe haven't had as much luck as I would have liked, but that was certainly satisfying for me.

"It was not the typical style of cricket that we would like to play, and it took some adjustment, but it shows this side can move forward and adapt to certain situations.

"We spoke a lot at the start of the series about how to get to that next level, about being a dominant Test team and the best Test team in the world. And as this game panned out, we showed that it's not always going to be one-minded or a certain style of cricket. So, it was very satisfying as a group."

By the end of it all, however, Carse admitted his over-riding emotion was "relief", when - with India just 22 runs adrift after an epic rearguard led by Ravindra Jadeja - Shoaib Bashir defied the pain of a broken finger to extract the final wicket of Mohammad Siraj.

"You wanted to fall to your knees, almost," Carse added, speaking in his new role as an ambassador for Step One underwear. "It was unbelievable, after all the hard work that the group put in over those five days. It was the best game that I've been involved in with England. And, from speaking to the guys who've played a lot of franchise cricket and Tests, like Harry Brook, who I get on really well with, he was saying that's his best Test win. So to hear that among the group, and to share those thoughts after the game, was a special feeling.

"Once we got off that field and walked through the Long Room, it was an incredible atmosphere … really loud. A couple of the guys who had played in the Ashes said that's the loudest they've ever heard the Long Room. It was a pretty special week."

After a week's break, England reconvene at Emirates Old Trafford this week with a 2-1 series lead, and two Tests left to play. The downtime, Carse admitted, had come at an opportune moment after the team had been forced to dig extraordinarily deep to close out a classic contest.

"It was a complete collective effort from all the bowlers," he said, with England pounding through nearly 200 overs on a slow Lord's surface that offered little once the hardness of the new ball had worn off.

"At times in that first innings, it was an incredibly long slog. But we kept coming and we kept on trying different plans. And, even in that second innings, all five bowlers contributed at certain times, so it felt really satisfying as a group of bowlers."

No one epitomised the hard graft better than England's captain, Ben Stokes, who took it upon himself to deliver two gut-busting spells on the final day - one of 9.2 overs in the morning session, and another of ten in the afternoon, when the Dukes ball was at its softest and least responsive.

"We had spoken about it as a group of seamers in that morning," Carse said. "When we started that day, the ball was maybe 20 overs old and relatively hard, so we knew the first hour was going to be important again. But Lord's was sold out and it was loud and tense at times, and the way Stokes captained the side, he doubled down on his method, and stuck to it right up until the end.

"There was always that level of calmness that comes from him out there, and that feeds on to the players. But it probably went on a little bit longer than we would have liked. And that second session, looking back at it now, was probably one of the toughest sessions that I've had so far in my Test career."

Physically, however, Carse insists he's still in a good place despite his exertions. Earlier this year, he was forced to miss the Champions Trophy after suffering an infection in the second toe of his left foot, and even joked that he'd considered amputation in a bid to get round a problem that had been caused by the heavy impact of his braced front leg in his delivery stride.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said. "Obviously, over the winter I was struggling, because I was playing with an open wound and eventually I just couldn't sustain bowling on it.

"But that problem is gone, it's completely healed up. My feet are never going to be perfect, but at the moment, they're in a good enough space that I'm happy with. I am going through bowling boots quite quickly - I had a couple of fresh pairs in the last game - and hopefully there will be a slightly better solution longer term.

"Stokesy's feet aren't the greatest looking things, either, and he always jokes with me, it takes a couple of balls just to knock the top off, and then you're into your work. But when you've got eight or nine times your body weight [being transferred through your bowling action], and with the amount of cricket that I've played so far this summer for England, I'm very comfortable and confident at where I'm at in regards with my body."

It was a tough contest mentally as well, as shown by various flashpoints between the teams across the five days - from Zak Crawley's confrontation with Gill on the third evening, to Carse's own altercation with Jadeja after an inadvertent collision while running between the wickets. The respect between the teams was in full evidence at the end, when England's fielders came over to console Jadeja and Siraj after their heroics with the bat, but up until that point there was no quarter given.

"We had a conversation on the evening of day three, when the Indian side was getting stuck into our two batters," Carse said. "That shifted the mentality and the mood of our whole group, that we were going to be right up for this and get stuck in.

"When you playing Test cricket, with the crowd and the pressure and the emotion, and how much everyone wanted to win that game, I think it's great. There's always obviously a line, and you don't want to cross that line. But when you're out on that field, and there's 10 other blokes all fighting your corner, it's pretty cool. And it's what the game needed at that time."