: New Zealand were slightly undercooked at Lords; theyll come hard in 2nd Test: Hussain #IndiaNEWS #Cricket Nottingham, June 10 | Former England skipper Nasser Hussain feels New Zealand were slightly

New Zealand were slightly undercooked at Lords; theyll come hard in 2nd Test: Hussain #IndiaNEWS #Cricket
Nottingham, June 10 | Former England skipper Nasser Hussain feels New Zealand were slightly undercooked in the opening Test against England at Lords and that they will come hard at the hosts in the second Test at Trent Bridge, adding that the three top-order batters Alex Lees, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope will have to play a fruitful innings in order to keep the tourists at bay.
All three top-order England batters were below-par in both innings at Lords with only Crawley having a worthwhile score of 43 in the first innings, which led to a first-innings collapse as the hosts were bundled out for 141.
In the second innings too, the trio had a collective score of 39 and it was left to former skipper Joe Root (115 not out), Ben Stokes (54) and Ben Foakes (32 not out) to guide the team to a five-wicket win and take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series.
On Friday, Hussain opined that England skipper Stokes will need at least one of his top three to go big at Trent Bridge.
They (England) should expect New Zealand, who were slightly undercooked, to come back hard over the next few days in Nottingham. Dont forget, theyre the world champions. An obvious area for improvement is Englands top three of Alex Lees, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, though I would say we shouldnt get too down on them. After all, look at how New Zealands much more experienced top order struggled at Lords, said Hussain in his column for Daily Mail.
Its also true that no one is expecting England to sort out all their problems overnight. Improvement, if it comes, will be gradual. But in each instance theres a slight issue to overcome, and theres no doubt all three (top-order batters) will feel more comfortable with a major innings behind them.
Hussain pointed out that in Lees case he has continually got into the groove, then got out, with six scores between 20 and 31 in eight Test innings.
When youre opening the batting, especially in England, youre always going to get the odd jaffa early on, which means when you make a start you have to go big. That way, you can have a couple of low scores but still average 40 or 50 for the series. Alastair Cook was a master of doing that, said Hussain.
Pointing out Lees flaw, Hussain said that the batter is constantly tinkering with his guard.
Left-handers often have to change guard to account for bowlers coming over or round the wicket, but at Lords, he was doing it too much.
Lee left one from Kyle Jamieson that hit the top of off stump in the second innings at Lords. In the first innings he was standing outside off stump, which meant Tim Southee aimed a bit straighter and Lees was out lbw.
Crawley, though, played nicely for 43 on the first day but got out to his old nemesis, the booming drive.

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