Alex Lees backs Joe Root to lead England to a victory in the series decider

England opener Alex Lees has backed Joe Root to lead the team to a victory and level the series on the last day of the rescheduled fifth Test.

In an attempt to chase a mammoth total of 378 in the fourth innings of the Test, England got off to a great start with openers Alex Lees and Zak Crawley putting on a 100+ run partnership for the first wicket to lay a strong foundation for the batters to follow. 

Lees was the aggressor in the partnership, and he got to his fifty off just 44 balls. However, when it felt like he was all set for his maiden three-figure score, a miscommunication between him and Joe Root cost him his wicket. As a result, he was run out in the second innings of the last Test match against New Zealand as well. 

When Lees was batting on 56, he got run out to a Ravindra Jadeja delivery. 

Speaking on his unfortunate run-out in the press conference, the English opener expressed his disappointment on his dismissal as he was out in the same fashion in the second innings of the last Test match against New Zealand as well.

"Obviously, gutted. I think that, on a personal level, obviously being run-out in two innings now is, obviously, quite hard to take," Alex Lees said.

Even after being out in an unfortunate way, Lees was pleased with England's commanding position in the rearranged Test. The left-handed batter is hopeful that England's stalwart Joe Root will take the team to their fourth consecutive win in the English summer and square the series 2-2.

"But the pleasing thing, for me, is that we are in an amazing position as a team and I have run-out people in my career – it is a horrible feeling. It is nothing that you obviously mean to do. So yeah, I mean, he (Joe Root) is a top guy and, hopefully, he will get the job done tomorrow (lead England to victory on Tuesday)," Lees added.

Team India started day 4 with a lead of 285 with seven wickets in hand, but Ben Stokes inspired his team's comeback by claiming four wickets in the innings as the tourists lost seven wickets for just 92 runs.

Lees said that his captain bowled a game-changing spell to turn the game on its hand on a "good batting wicket" of Edgbaston. 

"It's a good batting wicket. The thing that brought us back into the game was our bowling. Stokesy's (Ben Stokes) spell turned the game on its head. That was the defining moment for me. We could easily have been chasing 450 or 500." He concluded.