The Ashes 2023: Australia were under-par and still beat England, says Marnus Labuschagne

Marnus Labuschagne says Australia are encouraged after beating England in the first Ashes Test despite an "under-par" performance.

The tourists claimed a thrilling two-wicket win at Edgbaston but star batters Labuschagne and Steve Smith scored just 35 runs combined.

Before the second Test at Lord's, Labuschagne warned that Australia hold themselves to far higher standards.

"We want to be better than that," he said.

Australia were facing England's Bazball approach for the first time at Edgbaston, with Labuschagne - the number three-ranked Test batter - acknowledging that he has enjoyed watching Ben Stokes' team in recent months.

"I think it's exciting, it's entertaining, it's good to watch but, at the end of the day, I would say we played pretty under par to the standard that our team is at," Labuschagne added.

"From a batting point, Uz [Usman Khawaja] was outstanding, Alex Carey was very good as well but most of the other batters… we want to be better.

"Then from a bowling perspective, you come in with all your plans of how you're going to do it. But until you're out there and you experience it, it's very hard to say, 'OK, we're going to do this.'

"The thought was: 'How are they going to do it to our bowlers?'

"They showed they can do it - but with a wicket that might have a little more in it, what is it going to look like?

"We walk 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."

Joe Root replaced Labuschagne at the top of the Test batting rankings on Monday after scores of 118 not out and 46 in Birmingham.

The Australian was full of praise for the former England captain but suggested Root's aggressive approach - that included an attempted reverse ramp from the first ball of day four - prevented him from batting the visitors out of the match.

"The way he's batting is exquisite - the way his weight transfers, the way he's getting into the ball - I'm just talking about when he's batting normally, he's batting really well," Labuschagne said.

"From my perspective, him playing that method and those shots keep us in the game.

"I use that second innings as an example. He probably had an opportunity there 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.

"Evidently, he played an unbelievable innings but he ended up getting 40. If he turns that 40 into 80-plus then we're chasing 300 and that's going to be a pretty big effort.

"That's the benefit for us with the way that they're playing. They're playing aggressive cricket, he's doing it in a different method, which is great, but it brings opportunities for us. Hopefully at some part of the series, that will pay off."