"I really enjoy the way they [England] play, I'm not going to lie," Labuschagne said. "As a cricket watcher watching the series prior, I've loved it. I think it's exciting, it's entertaining, it's good to watch, but at the end of the day, we played pretty under par to what I think the standard of our team is at.

"The thought was how are they going to do it against our bowlers and they showed they can do it, but with a wicket that might have a little bit more in it [at Lord's], what's it going to look like? We walked away from the first Test 1-0 up and that's a positive sign for us because I don't think we played at our best."

However, Labuschagne viewed Root's approach as keeping Australia in the game and he duly ran past one from Lyon for 46, to follow an unbeaten 118 on the opening day, as none of England's batters reach fifty in the second innings.

"The way he's batting I think is exquisite...I'm just talking about when he's batting normally, I think he's playing really well," Labuschagne said. "I think from my perspective, him playing that method and those [reverse] shots are keeping us in the game.

"I use that second innings as an example. He probably had an opportunity to shut us out and take the game away from us completely. But the method and the way he was playing kept us in the game. He played an unbelievable innings, but he ended up getting 40 [46] and if turns that into 80-plus we're chasing 300 and that's going to be a pretty big effort.

"So I think that's the benefit for us the way they're playing. They're playing aggressive cricket and he's doing it with a different method, which is great, but it brings in other opportunities for us. Hopefully, at some point in the series, that will keep paying off."