With the effects of the resounding defeat at Fortress Edgbaston slightly toned down after a prolonged break, the focus now shifts to the Home of Cricket as it prepares to host the highly anticipated 2nd Test match of the series. Safe to say that the 22 yards at Lord's will be one of the most hotly talked about real estate in the country for the next week or so. The overcast conditions, the famous slope and the tinges of green on the deck, if any, will be some of the many talking points that will encircle the Cricketing fraternity as this game progresses.

122 for 8, halfway through the first day's play after winning the toss and making a bold decision to bat first, most people would have drawn curtains on the possibility of Australia scripting a remarkable comeback and actually winning the game. And yet, it happened. Through Steve Smith's heroics in form of spectacular twin centuries followed by a gallant bowling display saw England succumbing to their visitors on the last day of the Test by a hefty margin of 251 runs.

Problems galore for the hosts began when they lost their premier seam-bowler, Jimmy Anderson, on the morning of the Ashes-opener. Apparently, his calf injury had not been totally mended and, catastrophically for England, Anderson could not take any more part in the game with the ball. To add salt to the wound, he has also been sidelined for the 2nd Test given the tear in his calf persists and he is yet to touch up 100% fitness. To make matters worse for the home side, Ollie Stone has also caught an injury and, consequently, has not been named in the 12-man squad.

England have a lot of questions to answer as far as their middle-order is concerned and they are running out of time despite Jos Buttler's claims that there is no need to panic for the home side. A grueling World Cup campaign did take a lot of physical and mental toll on English players like Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes and their weariness did not help England's cause in the first Test. Moreover, it's still unclear how much time the selectors plan to grant to Joe Denly in order to allow him to prove his Test credentials.

Moeen Ali, who had a dreadful outing with both the bat and the ball at Edgbaston, has been shelved from the team and it's Jack Leach who replaces him. Moeen returned figures of 3-172 and scored only four runs in the whole game, falling prey to his age-old nemesis, Nathan Lyon, yet again. Jofra Archer is likely to make his Test debut given the lack of options England currently have due to injury dilemmas. Archer was named in the squad for the first Test but was left out of the team to give him more time to recover from a side strain. In a recently concluded game for Sussex's 2nd XI, the tall pacer 6-27 and hit a 99-ball century to make a case for the national side.

England's Squad for 2nd Test: Joe Root (capt), Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes.

Australia's inspirited performance at Edgbaston was fixated on one man's Cricketing salvation who defied everything that was thrown at him to complete his redemption. Steve Smith inflicted misery on the four-pronged English attack that had lost its spitting ability after the departure of its spearhead early on the first day.

The tourists made a bold decision to leave out Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood from the opening game. The duo has been star performers for the Aussies in the format for a long time but Australian management had decided to select on the basis of current form rather than the stat padding. Australia's pace attack bowled with a lot of valor and courage on a wicket that hardly offered anything for the seamers through a major part of the match.

Starc and Hazlewood recently partook in the tour game against Worcester where the pair bowled well with the new Duke cherries. Although Australia's team staff would not really want to tinker a whole lot with a winning formula there is a possibility that one of these two premier pacers might be slotted into the playing XI for the Lord's Test where the Dukes are certain to sizzle more than they did in Birmingham. Either one of these or both of these, though, will have to wait until the Headingley Test to have a go at the English.

Australia's middle-order seems to be far more settled than their counterparts. With Travis Head and Matthew Wade scoring crucial runs in the last game, the jittery nerves that this batting line up might have been carrying before the start of the series are suddenly vanquished. In fact, it's the top order, especially the two openers who need to get things going for Australia and set the tone.

Shockingly, for the first time in their Cricketing history, Australia triumphed a Test match where both of their openers got scalped on single-digit scores in both innings of the match. Both Cameron Bancroft and David Warner were making their Test comebacks along with Steve Smith but couldn't make any sort of impact with the bat, unlike Smith. Bancroft could only manufacture a meager 15 runs from his two attempts and Stuart Broad had the better of Warner in both innings as he got dismissed for scores of 2 and 8.

Australia's probable playing XI: Tim Paine (capt), Cameron Bancroft, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon