Five things we learned from the first Test

From five remarkable days at Lord’s, Australia’s brains trust will have been able to glean quite the wealth of information about an England side for whom the sun is suddenly shining brightly once again.

It happens quickly in the Motherland: if the press corps is to be believed, the medium-to-long-term fortunes of the national side fluctuate wildly with every result, and given the exciting and ultimately emphatic nature of this first Test win over New Zealand, hopes are sky high for a successful home summer.

Quick Single: Stokes inspires England to victory

Darren Lehmann and his entourage will look to view things with a slightly wider lens.

Here are five factors they may well have taken into consideration.

Ben Stokes is back. And he is a big deal. Australia saw the quality of the ginger-haired allrounder when he was head and shoulders above his team-mates in the 2013-14 Ashes. He scored a century and took a five-for in that series – his first of each in Test cricket – and was dropped a short while later while in the middle of a horror patch with the bat. He returned to Australian shores with Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash and again impressed – doing much what he did throughout this Test. He defends the balls he has to, attacks the rest, thrives on anything over-pitched, and dispatches the short ball through and over midwicket for fun. And most notably, like Flintoff and Pietersen before him, he seems to be at his best when the heat is on. How he deals with the pressure of what will now be particularly weighty expectations will be the million-dollar question for England, and perhaps an avenue for the Australians to zero in on.  

England – and their fans – have their tails up. We’ve seen for the past three series now, stretching back to 2005, England are an entirely different proposition on home soil when they have even a whiff of success. The whole country seems to pick up the momentum and, in turn, the team feeds back off the positivity they created in the first place. A series win against the Kiwis, a couple more English heroes in the next Test, more positive press, a new coach … just like that, England cricket is riding the crest of a wave, and the size of Australia’s task has grown exponentially. It’s a wall of noise that Australia will want to silence immediately, which makes the outcome of the opening Test all the more important.

Target England’s top order. Alastair Cook has just peeled off a second century in as many Tests and is about to become England’s all-time leading runs scorer in the five-day format. But it was Australia’s pace attack that began the rot for the England captain in this corresponding series two years ago, and they need to do it again. Adam Lyth has just debuted and Gary Ballance has just one Ashes Test under his belt – an old-fashioned drubbing inside three days in Sydney. The former is brand new on the Test scene and New Zealand may have highlighted some flaws in the technique of the latter; little foot movement to fuller deliveries had the No.3 caught on the crease, caught between shots, and caught out. And so Cook re-emerges as a key England wicket. A shaky top order does not bode well for any Test series, and could expose this man to a swinging ball …

Joe Root is class. Another youngster who impressed with his character as much as his technique before falling victim to England’s questionable selection policy, Root has given Steve Smith some company in the purplest of purple patches over the past year-and-a-bit. There’s little doubt that the 24-year-old will be a mainstay of England’s middle-order for the next decade. Like Stokes, he’s a competitor, and if his six hundreds to date are anything to go by, he has an appetite for going big. One of those was a splendid 180 against Australia at Lord’s two years ago, so they will be well aware of the threat, but the form line is ominous, and so too is the way the right-hander handled the swing of Tim Southee and Trent Boult in a pair of class half-centuries.

Get through the new ball. See off the early offerings of Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson and Australia’s batsmen may well have seen off the best the old stagers have to offer. Broad has traditionally shone only in patches and that is the case now more than ever. Anderson will hope conditions will favour him and remains world class when the ball is swinging, but David Warner and Chris Rogers have the quality and know-how to win that battle more often than not. Mark Wood’s Test career is one match old and while he offers a little extra pace, he is far from establishing himself as an automatic selection and it will be interesting to see the stance of Trevor Bayliss on the subject of England’s third pace option. Moeen Ali is not Graeme Swann and Australia’s middle-order plays spin as well as anyone. It all points back to the importance of Stokes. See above.