Some people fear change, not me I love it! Perhaps it's as a result of having moved around a lot when I was a kid but I quite like the idea of having to adapt to something new. It's a break from the norm and a chance to learn something different.

In sporting terms, it's all change for my teams at the moment. A new manager at my beloved Tottenham Hotspur and a new coach for the England cricket team. Jose Mourinho and Chris Silverwood will look to instigate changes that will likely see a big shift in the playing styles of their respective sides. Will they be able to do it and which players might benefit from their reign in charge time will tell but it certainly adds a level of excitement to watching them.

Chris Silverwood got the first crack at the whip today to set in motion his vision for returning England to the top of Test Match cricket. The side that he put out was very much as predicted and immediately hinted at a change back to a move conservative and perhaps traditional form of Test Match cricket.

Sibley and Burns at the top of the order are not the most eye-catching of players particularly when you look across the openers of almost every other Test playing nation and see at least one man who is there to take on the bowlers. However, when compared to the helter skelter cricket that England have been playing over the last few years they helped to lay a solid foundation and undoubtedly calm a few of the nerves for what is a relatively young and inexperienced side. Indeed, only Joe Root and Ben Stokes sitting at 4 and 5 can say they are truly established in this team and perhaps in a sense that is a good thing for Silverwood to work with players who are less set in their ways and more open to change their approach.

Having won the toss on a glorious day and equally wonderful looking batting track it was imperative that England made hay quite literally as the sun shone. While the first day didn't provide the most entertaining cricket in the world, the message was very clear - Silverwood has asked his top order to blunt the oppositions new ball attack! This is in contrast to the way that Trevor Baylis generally saw the game and was evident in the coaches different selections. No more luxury players like Jason Roy at the top of the order, no more shoehorning in another stroke-maker and no more Joe Root at number 3.

Of course if Silverwood wants to take some early credit for his change of approach it would be to simply compare the first day of this series with the one that England suffered less than 2 years ago in New Zealand when they were knocked over for just 58! If that wasn't used as motivation for the side to give a better account of themselves then it was certainly used to examine the kind of technique that England's batsmen would need to employ early on and they did it with aplomb! While in 2018 England were knicking off to the slips and keeper, left, right and centre, last night they played at virtually nothing that wasn't aimed at the stumps. To people who don't watch Test cricket often this makes the game seem painfully dull - why pay to watch a bat and ball game where the batsmen don't want to hit the ball? Those of us more versed in the nuances of the sport though know that that this is the perennial game of cat and mouse - get the bowler to bowl where you want it! While none of the top-order order were able to go on and get the big score they'd have dearly loved the fact that England were a 100-1 as opposed to 100-4 (a common score over the past 3 or 4 years) was refreshing.

Perhaps the biggest concern of the day was Joe Root's form. With 86 Tests to his name, you'd have thought that the England captain would be more certain of the place he wants to bat and the way he wants to go about playing. For him, it appears that change has come all too often and has left him struggling to catch up. While I admire the disciplined approach from England which Root looked to continue, I've always believed that playing defensively doesn't mean you should abandon playing positively. Root is at his best when he is pro-active at the crease, nudging singles, opening his wrists and working the ball into gaps but today it took him the best part of half an hour to get off the mark. It's the first day of the first Test after a long break so perhaps we shouldn't rush to judgement on the form of the skipper but Silverwood will undoubtedly be looking to Root to lead from the front with the way he bats.

In fact, for all the good work that England did today you can't help but feel that most of the batsmen ultimately got themselves bogged down by a lack of positivity. The top 3 added 148 runs at a strike rate of just 38 and while we saw some nice shots to bad balls, there was a distinct lack of dropping the ball into gaps and running singles - again, low-risk cricket doesn't have to be negative cricket!

Whenever a new man comes into a coaching/management role, it makes sense to go for the easy wins, ie. the changes that will make an instant and obvious impact. On the evidence of today's performance that change is to play in a much more circumspect manner and to prize one's wicket a little higher than under the previous regime. The challenge now is to refine that method of play and perhaps in that sense then change or at least adaptation is a constant within any successful sporting team.