England face difficult call on bowling attack for Lord's Ashes Test

England will have to make some tough decisions on the make-up of their bowling attack for the second Ashes Test at Lord's after Australia pulled off a tense two-wicket win in the series opener in Birmingham.

Captain Pat Cummins delivered with ball and bat to pull off one of the greatest wins in Ashes history. In the second innings, Cummins held fort until the end, scoring an unbeaten 44 to help chase down 281. He finished the game with 82 runs and four wickets.

As good as Cummins, and Usman Khawaja (141 and 65 in the match), were for the Aussies, Ben Stokes and England will be wondering how the match got away from them.

The hosts made a bold declaration on the opening day on 393-8 and even earned a first innings lead. In the final innings, they had Australia at 227-8 and all recognised batsmen dismissed.

The lack of serious firepower in their attack, on a relatively flat surface, came back to haunt them as Cummins and tail-ender Nathan Lyon saw the Aussies over the finish line.

At Edgbaston, veteran seamer James Anderson could only manage one wicket the entire match. Stuart Broad posed problems throughout the game, but he did not receive the kind of pressure required from the other end.

Returning off-spinner Moeen Ali damaged the skin on his bowling finger, hampering his effectiveness in the second innings, while Stokes kept running in on sheer willpower while managing his dodgy knee.

In case England persist with relatively flat wickets for the Ashes, they will need some more teeth in their bowling attack.

Fast bowler Mark Wood looks almost certain to play the second game, as he is the only one in the squad who can bowl at 150 kph. However, who does he come in for will be the million dollar question.

Former England