England still far from their best: Nasser Hussain

Former captain Nasser Hussain believes England are still far from their best after a shaky performance against New Zealand on Day 1 of the first Test at Lord's. The visitors were bowled out for 132 in the first innings, and the English team were 116/7 with the bat at stumps on Thursday.

England made changes to their team and James Anderson and Stuart Broad were named in the XI after missing the last series. The return of Anderson and Broad made life easy for the new skipper. 

As Hussain wrote in his Daily Mail column, the English team's batting was still a problem. Despite the strong performance with the ball, England struggled once again with the bat.

"No matter how much good work Stokes did in the first half of the day, he was reminded in the second half that England's Test batting is still a big issue. There's plenty of work still to be done - technically, mentally and positionally," Nasser Hussain wrote.

The former England skipper praised England's bowlers for bowling full length deliveries in the first session of the day's play. Jonny Bairstow took three catches at the first slip and the bowlers didn't overstep a single time. Despite the fact that they've been taking wickets with no-balls recently.

For the majority of the day's play, the hosts had a beautiful day of cricket. After losing the toss, they bowled the opponents out for a low score and even managed to put an end to their opening combination woes. Zak Crawley played with ease as he and Alex Lees put up 59 for the first wicket.

However, England were left reeling at 116/7 after a spectacular collapse in the final session of the day, after being poised at 75/2 not long ago.

It's worth noting that Stokes was able to correct most of England's flaws during the course of the previous calendar year.

"Many of the things England have been doing wrong in the field over the last 17 Test matches they got right on Ben Stokes' first day as full-time captain. It was just a pity their old failings with the bat came back to haunt them," he added.

Overnight batters Ben Foakes and Stuart Broad will try to bat long on day 2 and help the side to a big first-innings lead.

The last time England beat New Zealand in a Test match was in 2015. The 124-run victory happened to take place at Lord's Cricket Ground.