When I played, I thought the main thing was to win. But over time I realized that it’s also about how you play. Fans want to see teams playing beautiful rugby, soccer or cricket, doing something innovative and unusual. It’s exciting, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. If you can combine that with winning, it’s really a magical formula, Strauss said.

England announced the game at the end of the first day, a statement that drew criticism after the loss. England’s strike bowler James Anderson spoke in support of captain Ben Stokes’ decision.

I had my pads on, waiting to bat, when Ben announced. He said he would have declared in the same position against any team in the world, so why should the Ashes series be any different? It was a positive move, Anderson wrote in the Telegraph newspaper.

Opening batsman Zack Crawley also supported the overall style of play and even made a prediction that England would win the second Test by 150 points.

I think the pitch will suit us better, so I think we will win, I don’t know, by 150 runs? We’re not focused on the outcome. We’re not about winning or losing, we’re about having fun. That’s why we took [this loss] better than other losses, maybe because it was great for the game. Of course we want to win, and that helps our brand and what we’re trying to do. If we win, we get more traffic. But I don’t think we’ve lost anything other than the game of cricket, Crawley said on Times Radio.