What was it I was saying about changes? Seems that some habits die hard!

England have lost the 1st Test in New Zealand by a whopping innings and 65 runs. From a position of dominance on Day 1 they went on to be summarily beaten on each of the proceeding 4 days and become the third touring Test side this week (Bangladesh and Pakistan the others) to lose by a margin of an innings. That in itself is a worrying statistic for all cricket fans as what good is Test cricket if it's not going to be competitive?

Usually, at this point I would rip into the England side and write a scathing article about how completely hopeless they all are. If nothing else, it's easier to produce critical pieces but on this occasion, I thought I would see how many excuses I can come up with to account for this woeful defeat.

They were tired

There is certainly the thought that the side are weary having come off a monster summer that was both physically and emotionally draining. It's long been the case that England play more cricket (particularly Test cricket) than any other nation in the game and with this year comprising a home World Cup + a 5 Test Ashes series many of the player's bodies and minds would have taken a real beating.

Having spent 2 days in the field, what little energy they had had all but evaporated in South Hemisphere's summer sun meaning it was always going to be difficult to resist New Zealand late on Day 4

I guess the question then is, why play the tour at all? England toured New Zealand less than 2 years ago, they have Test Matches starting in South Africa before Christmas and besides which the series against the Kiwis doesn't even count towards the newly formed ICC Test Championship.

They were underprepared

Probably an excuse that every side but particularly touring sides can use in the modern game is that they were completely under-prepared for their first match. England played 5 T20 games prior to the first Test but of the 11 selected to play only Sam Curran was involved in those games. Even then T20 cricket is hardly the best preparation for the 5 day slog that is Test cricket particularly when it's played on a flat wicket where the teams were required to graft for runs and wickets.

Sandwiched in between the T20 series and this game, England played just 2 warm-up matches. The first was a 2 day match against a team of players I've never heard of and the second was a 3 day game against a New Zealand A side. Many of the team involved in the 1st Test won't have bowled or hit a cricket ball in anger for about 2 months so it was always going to be difficult to hit the ground running against a side like New Zealand who have a formidable record at home in recent years.

What I'd like to have seen England do is take a leaf out of Australia's book this summer. They sent their "A" Team to the UK while the World Cup was being played. The side contained some up and coming cricketers who were pushing for selection but it also had quite a few established players who were not a part of the white ball side that made the semi-finals. Had the England Lions (England A) toured then they could have included the likes of Burns, Sibley, Pope and Leach none of who play in the limited-overs side and all of who are looking to establish themselves at the top level.

It felt like a Sunday league match

New Zealand looks like a fantastic place to go and watch cricket. The Bay Oval in Tauranga was resplendent throughout with its grassy banks and views down to the ocean but at the same time that relaxed kind of feel was a million miles away from the vibrant and noisy atmospheres of this summers Ashes series. You can understand why New Zealand play their games at such venues because quite simply they wouldn't sell out one of the bigger stadium type arenas and a stadium without people is a fairly depressing place to be.

However, that ambience seemed to transfer itself onto the England team. The worst period was the morning session of Day 3. The game was finely poised and with England having dismissed star batsman Kane Williamson the night before, they knew that a couple of early wickets would have them in the ascendency. Henry Nicholls, not out over night had already taken a whack in the head from Joffra Archer so it seemed inevitable that he'd be charging in first thing and looking to put the fear of God up the Kiwis. But no, instead Root handed the ball to Sam Curran and Stuart Broad!

Joe Root cut an increasingly frustrated figure on Day 3 of the 1st Test

Broad, in particular, looked like a man who had not bowled for 3 months. He was so stiff, that's it's a miracle he was able to turn his arm over at all and with the little lollipops he did bowl I reckon I'd have got runs against a man with 400+ Test wickets! Archer was left to stand at mid-off where he was so disinterested in the game that he kept dropping the ball as it was passed back around the field. If you did that in a village cricket match you'd expect to get a rocket from your captain. In the space of 30mins, England had managed to change Archer from a snarling beast that all the Black Cap's batsmen would have feared facing into a juggling clown.

As you can see at this point I'm struggling not to be critical so I'll call it a day in regards trying to justify England's shoddy performance suffice to say that they have just 3 days before the 2nd Test to try and turn things around and next time, there can be no excuses!