NASSER HUSSAIN: Stokes will need at least one of top three to go big

That was a much-needed win for England in the first Test at Lord's, but they should expect New Zealand, who were slightly undercooked, to come back hard over the next few days in Nottingham. Don't forget, they're the world champions.

An obvious area for improvement is England's top three of Alex Lees, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, though I would say we shouldn't get too down on them. After all, look at how New Zealand's much more experienced top order struggled at Lord's.

It's 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 there's a slight issue to overcome, and there's no doubt all three will feel more comfortable with a major innings behind them.

Lees averages 21 in Test cricket, Crawley 28 and Pope — after a good start — 27. They can all do better.

In Lees's case, he has continually got in, then got out, with six scores between 20 and 31 in eight Test innings.

When you're opening the batting, especially in England, you're 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.

What doesn't seem to help Lees is that he's constantly tinkering with his guard. Left-handers often have to change guard to account for bowlers coming over or round the wicket, but at Lord's he was doing it too much.

In the first innings he was standing outside off stump, which meant Kane Williamson could tell Tim Southee to aim a bit straighter. Sure enough, Lees was out lbw. In the second, he wasn't as far over, but then left one from Kyle Jamieson that hit the top of off.

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