Kyle Jamieson reacts as England add runs during the fourth day of the first test. Photo / AP
Kyle Jamieson reacts as England add runs during the fourth day of the first test. Photo / AP
OPINION: By Andrew Alderson in Nottingham
How can New Zealand resurrect their series against England during the second test at Nottingham?
1. The top order emerges from hibernation
Coach Gary Stead has indicated the same quartet will play at Trent Bridge, despite their struggles at 12 for four and 56 forfour in the respective innings of the opening five-wicket loss.
Their contribution was 50 runs. They got caught out, literally, across all eight innings with early movement off the pitch and tentative movement with their bats and feet.
Stead insists there's no reason to panic. He has ruled out Will Young switching to number four and Devon Conway moving up to open as a possible tweak.
Young, with a pair of ones, looked the most vulnerable but has scored 331 runs at an average of 55.17 in division one of the county championship with Northamptonshire so is the most acclimatised to the English summer.
Enough runs should be present in the Trent Bridge block. No team has compiled more than 358 in three first-class games this season but only one side in nine completed innings has scored fewer than 242.
2. Mull over the Neil Wagner-Ajaz Patel conundrum and give whoever's picked a decent run
The left-arm orthodox spinner was the victim of circumstance at Lord's, given the brief nature of both first innings – 132 versus 141 – and a lack of pitch deterioration across three days. Then he had his confidence tonked into the stands by Ben Stokes, conceding two overs for 22 runs.
Rest assured Williamson rates Patel. However, the question now looms about whether to return to a ruthless all-pace battery to level the series by recalling Wagner as a pectoral-thumping point of difference.
In the last three tests at the venue, where England have lost twice and drawn once, spin has played a relatively minor role.
One wicket of 31 came via tweak in 2021, five wickets of 37 in 2018 and 11 wickets of 39 in 2017. The overall impact is 16 percent, which makes the decision moot.
This season 14 out of 98 – 14 percent – of dismissals have come that way.
3. Forensically examine Joe Root
Root looks like the player who could define the series, judging by his 115 not out to win the test at Lord's. He completed his first fourth-innings ton in 26 centuries and became the 14th player to reach 10,000 test runs.
Yet vulnerability was on parade in the first innings. Colin de Grandhomme bowled short of a length in the channel and Root flicked into limited overs mode to guide a catch to Tim Southee in the cordon. Hitting his bat hard from that area could deliver the highest percentage chance of dismissal.
England's Joe Root plays a shot off the bowling of New Zealand's Trent Boult during the first test. Photo / AP
Whisper this quietly, but the last time Root played at Trent Bridge he made 64 and 109 in the draw with India. He also looks liberated after conceding the captaincy to Ben Stokes. The bowlers might need to commandeer the hotel's conference room white board for a while.
4. Channel the spirit of Sir Richard
Hadlee took 375 wickets at an average of 13.86 at Trent Bridge, including five tests for New Zealand and 10 seasons with Nottinghamshire.
Get him up on a Zoom call asap. What was the secret?
