Crawley in crisis? Fresh bowling attack? The key questions facing England

England have had time to reflect on a humbling defeat in the first Test to South Africa and now begin plotting how they level the three-match series.

The new red-ball regime of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum were brought back down to earth at Lord’s after the tourists secured victory by a winning margin of an innings and 12 runs inside three days.

Play concluded before tea on the third day, which meant the hosts have had the whole weekend to get the defeat out of their system before the second Test gets under way at Emirates Old Trafford on Thursday.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at the key issues.

Before Stokes and McCullum took over this summer, England had endured a horrid run of one victory in 17 Tests. It felt at times during the opener at Lord’s that the hosts had gone back in time with consecutive poor batting displays but it should be noted they were facing a formidable bowling attack who needed just 82.4 overs to dismiss England twice at the home of cricket. Execution will be key after failing in London.

While England were skittled on two occasions in rapid fashion, not many of their dismissals were due to the famed aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach that captured the imagination with four remarkable chases in June and July. Alex Lees’ first innings dismissal was poor and Ben Foakes did not cover himself in glory chasing a wide delivery second time around but few of the other home batters were out playing irresponsible shots. In fact McCullum questioned whether they went hard enough and given the performances under the old regime, why should England change what worked two months ago? Dean Elgar threw the hosts off early by making them bat first and insisted his side played their usual way of adapting to