England’s international home summer kicked off on Thursday with the first Test match of the three-Test rubber against New Zealand.
This is England’s first Test series since losing the Ashes 2025/26 by a 4-1 scoreline in Australia, forcing a rethink of the Bazball methods for Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.
Following the Ashes drubbing, England made seven changes to their Test squad, including dropping stylish opener Zak Crawley, former vice-captain Ollie Pope, and all-rounder Will Jacks.
The discarded medium pacer Ollie Robinson is back in the ranks and has been named in the playing XI for the ENG vs NZ 1st Test at Lord’s.
26-year-old opener Emilio Gay replaces Crawley at the top, while Shoaib Bashir, who was on the bench for the entire Ashes series, gets into England’s XI again as Stokes and McCullum begin their planning for the 2027 Ashes in the next home summer.
One tweak inside the lineup that the England management has made is to push Stokes down to No. 7 and promote Jamie Smith, the aggressive wicket-keeper, to No. 6.
Gus Atkinson, Ollie Robinson, and Josh Tongue comprise England’s pace attack for the 1st Test against New Zealand, with Stokes in support.
However, one major man missing from this attack is speedster Jofra Archer, who was bowling rockets recently at the IPL 2026 in India.
Archer’s absence is conspicuous from the Lord’s Test, a venue where his hostile spell against Steve Smith in the 2019 Ashes still remains memorable.
ENG vs NZ 1st Test: Why Is Jofra Archer Not Playing Lord’s Test Against New Zealand?
Jofra Archer wasn’t named in the England squad for the 1st Test against New Zealand at Lord’s. At the time of the squad announcement, England’s managing director Rob Key said that Archer was “unavailable,” and the attention now was on “building him up for red-ball cricket after a long six months on the road.”
What Key referred to was that Archer’s last red-ball game was in December in the Ashes, where he missed the last two Tests due to injury. He then played the T20 World Cup and the full IPL season, where he racked up 25 wickets as Rajasthan Royals reached the playoffs.
Archer was in action as recently as May 29, when Rajasthan lost to Gujarat in Qualifier 2, after which he flew home to Barbados for a break.
Given the short turnaround time between the IPL and the Lord’s Test against New Zealand, considering his lack of red-ball rhythm and his injury and fitness concerns, the ECB didn’t pick Archer for the 1st Test against the Kiwis even though he is a centrally contracted cricketer.
Key had reflected on the Archer’s situation: “We’re always trying to do the dance between making sure that we have our best players playing and available as much as possible [but] there’s a hell of a lot of cricket, and actually, you want them to be coming in fresh, ready, and have enough bowling under them so they can perform at their best.”
ENG vs NZ: Will Archer play in the 2nd Test against New Zealand?
It’s not clear whether Archer will return to Test cricket with the second Test or the third Test in the ENG vs NZ series.
McCullum said, “When we see him, we’ll work out where he sits and if he’s available for the second Test; if not, we’ll look at the third Test.”
Former England batsman Mark Butcher slammed Archer’s absence as “absolutely ridiculous” and questioned the use of central contracts. Michael Atherton expressed disappointment at the ECB’s “subservience” attitude to the IPL.
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