Welcome to England’s new Test era. Stop me if you’ve read this one before.

The opening day of the 2026 Test summer proved to be wildly undulating, intermittently chaotic, and utterly compelling. It was blessed with moments of genius and splashes of rank ineptitude, as polarised as the bright sunshine and torrential downpours in which it was staged, and it finished with England in command against New Zealand despite their best efforts at self-sabotage.

The net result was scarcely distinguishable, in other words, from the last first day of an England versus New Zealand Test match at Lord’s – the original Stokes-McCullum launch party of June 2022, when 17 wickets tumbled in a madcap day of seam and swing, and England’s eventual total of 141 in 42.5 overs (compared to 140 in 39.4 this time around) ended up being the launchpad for greater things.

The parallels were hardly exact – notwithstanding another counterattacking cameo from Harry Brook,  timidity rather than bravado proved to be the defining feature of England’s innings. It was as if their determination to play “smarter cricket”, as per Ben Stokes’ pre-match comments, had caused the entire order to second-guess their previously route-one methods. The key beneficiary was the returning Kyle Jamieson, who booked his place on the Lord’s honours-board with a magnificent haul of 5 for 62, his first Test wickets since February 2024.

But then, in the evening sunshine, that performance was trumped by an even more startling comeback from England’s own rangy right-armer. Like Jamieson, Ollie Robinson chugged in from the Nursery End, exploiting his towering release point and metronomic accuracy to prove that outright pace is no pre-requisite for world-class status. He too was back after a two-and-a-half year absence from Test cricket, although Robinson’s many critics would argue that his own back issues in that period had been symptom, rather than cause, of his banishment.

As far as the Lord’s crowd was concerned, however, all was forgiven by the end of Robinson’s astonishing opening over. Six balls, three wickets, no runs, and an almighty acclaim as he trooped down to fine leg at the end of it, armed with instant evidence that he was worthy of the “No.1” shirt that he had claimed on his return.

His first victim was Devon Conway, pinned by a third-ball nip-backer as he thrust his pad down the line; his second was the mighty Kane Williamson, caught off a looping inside-edge at short leg as Robinson began his familiar airplane celebration before the ball had even nestled in Emilio Gay’s hands. One ball later, he was on a hat-trick, as Rachin Ravindra was late coming forward and thumped in front of all three. For the second time in the over, Rod Tucker’s verdict was shown to be marginal, but such was Robinson’s command of his own fingers on the seam, he effectively took ownership of the umpire’s too.

Gus Atkinson, 10mph quicker but initially off the pace at the business end, then made it 12 for 4 when Tom Latham also played down the wrong line. Not to be outdone, Robinson flattened Daryl Mitchell’s middle stump as he shouldered arms to another bail-trimmer, before Josh Tongue ploughed through Tom Blundell’s defences to cap a sorry scoreline of 29 for 6. Though Glenn Phillips stepped into the Brook role with an enterprising 31 from 34 balls, the deficit at the close was still a daunting 79.

New Zealand’s concerns weren’t limited to the scoreline. Though it seemed immaterial for much of the day, the loss of their attack leader, Matt Henry, to a back spasm could have more serious ramifications as and when England’s second innings gets underway. He managed four of the ten overs in a truncated morning session, in which period the debutant Gay came and went. Though Gay showed glimpses of his potential, having helped himself to a first-ball four off Jamieson’s loosener, he soon fell to the same bowler when squared up and caught at slip.

In Henry’s absence, New Zealand resumed with the seam-and-swing pairing of Nathan Smith and Will O’Rourke, and all hell broke loose. From 31 for 1 in the second over of the session, England tumbled to 34 for 4 in the space of 14 balls, culminating in the priceless scalp of Joe Root for 1. That then became 55 for 5 when Jamie Smith inexplicably shouldered arms to an in-ducker from Jamieson and lost his off stump, also for 1.

It will be little consolation to Smith that his dismissal was marginally less embarrassing than his awful slap to cover off Marnus Labuschagne in England’s previous Test at Sydney in January, but as an illustration of England’s scrambled post-Bazball mindset, it was perfect.

A glimpse of that commitment to “smarter cricket” had been witnessed from the outset of England’s innings. Duckett, fronting up for the first ball in the absence of his former partner, Zak Crawley, offered consecutive leaves to Henry’s opening deliveries en route to a maiden over, and had struck just one boundary in 31 balls before lunch.

He wasn’t able to make his start count, however. Smith, fresh from a six-wicket haul against Ireland last week, roared in from the Nursery End with an aggressive full length, and pinned Duckett on the back leg as he nipped the ball back down the slope – the first of six lbws in the day.

Jacob Bethell showed decent judgment in persuading his partner not to burn a review, but he couldn’t translate that eye on the ball into his own innings. After an indifferent spell with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL, and the added distraction of a finger injury, the sparkling form of his 154 at Sydney in January felt like a fever dream. After nudging along to 6 from 22 balls, Bethell launched into a drive as O’Rourke fired in a full length, missed the ball by a distance, and was sent on his way via three reds on review.

At 33 for 3, the stage was set for a Root special – he certainly had Lord’s full blessing to rebuild the innings at any tempo necessary. But O’Rourke had other ideas, and the ball with Root’s name on it was a beauty: a vicious lifter from just back of a length, which kissed the edge on its way through to Blundell.

Brook, who had swayed out of the way of a first-ball bouncer and took 11 balls to get off the mark, initially seemed unsure how to pace his attempted fightback. But, as so often, a moment of good fortune helped to crystallise his thought process. On 8, he sliced into a cut off O’Rourke, but Conway failed to grasp a routine chance as he attempted a reverse-cup take. Four balls later, Brook climbed through a trademark pull in front of square, and his innings was up and running.

His partners, however, were unable to find similar traction. After Smith’s aberration, Stokes emerged at his new berth at No.7, but scarcely exuded an air of permanence throughout an off-the-pace display. And, just as he was beginning to find his range with a pair of leg-side fours, he was undone by a blinder from his old adversary, Williamson, in the cordon. A low edge off Jamieson looked for all the world to be going to ground, but Williamson flung himself across first slip from second, scooped the chance up in his fingertips, and clutched it to his chest to be sure.

Brook carried on swinging, taking lumps out of Jamieson’s heavy lengths to march towards a 64-ball fifty with nine fours. But with New Zealand setting in-out fields for the inevitable miscue, the bowler should have had the last laugh on 46, only for Ravindra to spill a top-edged pull in front of the Mound Stand.

It didn’t matter too much in the long run, however. After Atkinson had come and gone for 4, Jamieson himself made amends on the fine leg rope to give Smith a deserved second, then landed his coveted place on the honours board soon afterwards too. Another downpour forced an early tea at 118 for 8, but two balls after the resumption, Robinson dangled his bat outside off and Latham smartly took the review with seconds to spare, to reveal a thin edge off the toe of his blade.

Tongue and Shoaib Bashir were an unlikely source of late resistance. However, both men played the shots that their senior team-mates had scrapped from their game-plan to add 22 for the last wicket, the second-highest stand of the innings. By the close, that injection of impetus was looking significantly more important than it seemed at the time.

Scores:
New Zealand 61 for 6 in 19.2 overs (Glenn Phillips 31*; Ollie  Robinson 4-10) trail England 140 in 39.4 overs (Harry Brook 56; Kyle Jamieson 5-62, Nathan Smith 3-38, Will O’Rouke 2-25) by 79 runs

[Cricinfo]