England were undone by New Zealand's "awesome" four-man pace attack on day one of the Test summer at Lord's.
The feared BlackCaps pace attack was in full force, with Mitchell Santner overlooked for selection to get another pacer into the side under grey clouds. As England looked to move on from the errors of the winter in Australia, they were continually challenged, all but Harry Brook unwilling to deploy the kind of attack which undid them six months ago.
After being served a wide full toss to get off the mark in Test cricket with an easy boundary, Emilio Gay was the first victim of New Zealand's battery. Kyle Jamieson, playing his first Test since 2024 having recovered from a back stress fracture, snaked through a nip-backer that clipped Gay's outside edge. There was a similarity to Jamieson's last visit to Lord's in 2022, when he nicked Ollie Pope off with a similar delivery, bouncing off a length and nipping off the seam.
The symmetry of the two games doesn't end there. In that match, the first of Bazball era, England were bowled out for 141 in their first innings, back then it was the Trent Boult-Tim Southee juggernaut. Today, their regenerated attack dismissed England for 140, their lowest total in a home Test since the beginning of 2022.
Jamieson's dominance in England, which includes the five-for and Player of the Match performance he put in at Southampton in the 2021 World Test Championship final against India, was referenced by teammate Rachin Ravindra in explaining New Zealand pace bowling strength and depth on Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast earlier this week. "He [Jamieson] is an awesome bowler," said Ravindra. "Swings the ball both ways, he's done it over here before, at Lord's and the WTC final. He's incredible with the tall bounce he gets."
🗣️ "It's actually scary to face in the nets" 😳
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 3, 2026
Rachin Ravindra on New Zealand's incredible pace bowling depth 🔥
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Watch 👉 https://t.co/z6qOu66LLJ#ENGvNZ pic.twitter.com/9xFSBsJetd
Jamieson ended with another five-for, having broken the back of England's powerful middle order. Despite Jamie Smith's misjudgement in leaving a ball from Jamieson which ended up ripping his off stump out, the uncertainty Jamieson creates from both the balls he bowls which continue straight and the bounce he gets, made that dismissal.
Perhaps the most impressive part of New Zealand's attack was how quickly they rattled through England despite losing Matt Henry to a suspected back spasm after he had bowled just four overs. "Sometimes he's [Henry] underrated," said Ravindra. "He’s incredible. He nips the ball both ways, hits my thigh pad too much in the nets, puts me on the front foot, nicks me off."
Despite Henry's loss, New Zealand's strength in depth meant they had another who terrorises Ravindra in the nets to turn that fire on England.
"Will O’Rourke... there aren’t enough adjectives to describe how yucky he is to face in the nets," said Ravindra. "It’s lucky I’m a left-hander so it goes across me, but to the right-handers he’s over the top of his head at the mid 140s, can bowl 150. He bowled at 150 against England at home, it was an unbelievable spell to Root, Bethell, Brook, those boys. He was just running in and it was incredible cricket. I was fielding and as a cricket fan, it was like wow."
On cue, O'Rourke's seventh ball to Jacob Bethell angled in and whacked him on both pads, and would have gone on to hit middle stump. Forming a lethal swing-seam partnership with O'Rourke, Nathan Smith, with the Dukes ball back in his hand after he took 14 wickets in four matches for Surrey last year, and after his six-wicket-haul against Ireland last week, bowled lethally full down the slope. Having pinned Ben Duckett on his back leg, the tame modes of his second two dismissals to Brook and Smith underplay how uncompromising the partnership was.
Waiting in the wings on this tour, New Zealand have Zak Foulkes and Blair Tickner. While for England, it was Ollie Robinson who blasted them back into the match at the end of the day, the BlackCaps strength in numbers, as well as quality, was the reason England were so far behind at all.
"The cool thing about these guys is they’re not classic mean, nasty fasties, they’re just good dudes," said Ravindra. "Whether that’s a Kiwi way or not, it’s cool."
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