Former captain Joe Root’s unbeaten century guided England to a five-wicket win against New Zealand in the first Test at Lord’s on Sunday.
Victory over the World Test champion saw England make a fine start to life under their new red-ball leadership duo of skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand captain.
Below AFP Sport looks at three things we learned from the opening encounter of a three-match series.
Broad and Anderson still know how
James Anderson and Stuart Broad, England’s two most successful Test bowlers of all time, marked their return to international duty by sharing 10 wickets between them.
The new-ball duo had both been controversially left out of England’s recent series loss in the Caribbean despite a then combined tally of 1,177 Test wickets.
But for all Matthew Potts, selected amid an injury crisis that ruled out several England quicks, marked his debut with four for 13 in New Zealand’s meagre first-innings 132, the veteran pair proved their worth again.
Anderson had first-innings figures of four for 66 while, second time around, New Zealand lost three wickets to successive Broad deliveries in another of his match-changing bursts, albeit one was to a run out.
Schedule catches up with New Zealand
New Zealand dismissed England for 141 in their first innings, with the experienced Tim Southee and Trent Boult sharing seven wickets.
But with both bowlers having just recently completed stints in the Indian Premier League, where Southee played under McCullum at the Kolkata Knight Riders and Boult, who only arrived in England last Monday after helping the Rajasthan Royals reach the final of the Twenty20 franchise competition, the second innings was a different affair.
