England

A total of 17 wickets fell on Day 1 as both England and New Zealand seamers put in a similarly incisive performance with the ball at Lord's helpful surface. England pacers wreaked havoc to bowl out New Zealand for 132 and they looked in a solid position to control the first Test. Their openers started off well, first seeing off the brief session before Tea without any hiccups.

On Friday, Caribbean Premier League (CPL) side Barbados Royals took their 'longevity' to an altogether different level, positing 'images' of the two bowlers -- who share in the vicinity of 1,200 Test wickets among themselves -- in circa 2053 when Anderson would be nearly 70 years old and Broad around 66.

With right-hander Jos Buttler doing exceptionally well for Rajasthan Royals and Liam Livingstone and Jonny Bairstow making a statement for Punjab Kings, spin-bowling stalwart and handy batter Moeen Ali joined the party when he took three crucial wickets as Chennai Super Kings thrashed Delhi Capitals at the DY Patil Stadium by 91 runs on Sunday night.

Thanks to Stokes' brutal hitting, Durham declared their innings on 580/6, with Stokes contributing 161 runs (88 balls) to the total. In reply, Worcestershire were 169/6 at close. Stokes' number of maximums was a record for a Championship innings, beating the 16 achieved by Australia's Andrew Symonds (1995) and England's Graham Napier (2011) for Gloucestershire and Essex respectively.

As the England Test team makes the transition from Joe Root to Ben Stokes, who was appointed skipper after Rob Key took over as managing director of men's cricket, Pietersen has said that one more batter -- preferably Harry Brook -- should also be handed Test debut ahead of the busy English summer, which begins with the home Test against New Zealand on June 2.

At the same time, Gayle has hoped that Stokes will get the required support from his predecessor Joe Root and others to lift England's fortunes in Test cricket. On April 28, Stokes was appointed as the 81st Test captain of England after Root stepped down from the top job. His first assignment as the Test skipper of England will be a three-match home Test series against current World Test Championship winners New Zealand in June.

The two ageing warhorses were curiously overlooked for England's three-Test tour of the Caribbean earlier this year as selectors instead opted to provide greater opportunities to the next generation of seam bowlers. England, then led by Joe Root, ended up losing the series 0-1. Root stepped down in the aftermath of the series loss even as plenty of question marks remained unanswered about the team's future.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on Wednesday named a strong 20-member squad for the three-match series that starts at Lord's on June 2, with Williamson set to feature at the Test level for the first time since November last year. Williamson has made a complete recovery from the elbow injury that saw him miss the drawn Test series against Bangladesh and South Africa and is currently leading Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

With Ben Stokes appointed as new Test skipper on Thursday and Rob Key made the managing director of men's cricket, the chances of Anderson and his new-ball partner Stuart Broad having a crack with the red cherry is still present. Anderson and Broad, amongst the top-10 wicket-takers in Test cricket with 640 and 537 wickets respectively, were shock omissions from England's three-match away series in West Indies in March, which they lost 1-0.

Stokes was made England captain after Joe Root stepped down in the wake of the away Test series loss in the Caribbean, while England chief coach Chris Silverwood quit his post following the 0-4 Ashes debacle Down Under. The Test team's uninspiring showing in the last couple of years has been blamed as much on the players as on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) top bosses.