NASSER HUSSAIN: England lacked intensity in their bowling and suffered from sloppy fielding

England were just too lethargic on Wednesday when everything appeared set in their favour to get back into this Ashes series.

They were subdued despite winning the toss and there was a real lack of intensity to their bowling attack – the speeds of each of the five seam bowlers was down and they didn’t bowl bouncers to change things up – while the fielding was sloppy and they missed catches.

Where was the spark? Where was the urgency? When the Just Stop Oil protest happened, there was a lot of chat and then, when it rained they strolled off and were still upstairs when the Australian batters were waiting on the steps at the bottom of the pavilion.

In those drizzly conditions, if the umpires call you back on, you want to be rushing on straight away as a fielding team, bowling as much as possible.

Cast your minds back to the first Test at Edgbaston and Australia won that game to a large degree because of a period England had to bat under lights at the start of their second innings when they lost two both openers in quick succession.

England were too lethargic when everything was set in their favour to get back into this series

They were subdued despite winning the toss and there was a real lack of intensity to their bowling attack while the fielding was sloppy and they missed catches

When the Just Stop Oil protest happened, there was a lot of chat and then, when it rained they strolled off and were still upstairs when the Australian batters were waiting on the steps

It was hard to put your finger on why Ben Stokes’ team were not at their best and potentially it might have been a reflection of how much the two-wicket defeat in Birmingham took out of them.

At a ground like Edgbaston, the crowd lifts you and provides real theatre and emotion. At Lord’s, it’s a lot more low key and you have to make your own vibe.

There was plenty of movement through the air but once again we saw a lack of zip in the surface, epitomised when Stuart Broad’s first ball dribbled through to Jonny Bairstow after bouncing twice.

Yet Stokes was slow to react to that in his field settings. On a slow pitch, your catchers behind the wicket need to be squarer and a gully should have been in earlier. Yes, he kept conventional fields as conditions dictated but it needed to be two slips and a gully rather than three slips.

Josh Tongue was the pick of the bowlers and it was a brave selection to play him on a green top when they might as easily have picked Chris Woakes, a good all-round cricketer with a fine record on this ground.

Tongue’s dismissal of David Warner from around the wicket was a fine piece of bowling. His first ball was back of a length, and it went over the stumps. Next ball, he went six inches fuller and found the top of leg stump. That was very smart bowling.

But it was a rare positive in what was generally a lack of intensity from England.

Sometimes when you win the toss in helpful conditions, a team can think things will automatically happen for them.

Alternatively, when the pitch is green and there are overheads in your favour, you can feel the pressure a bit.

This was not a day for a team getting to 300 only three wickets down, as the Australians did before Joe Root’s golden arm pulled things back a bit to leave them five down at the close

Having bowled on that turgid pitch last week, they were greeted in London by a seamer-friendly surface. But when things are in your favour, you have to make good.

One concern is that the ball was still doing quite a bit aerially for 60 overs.

Another is that England’s best bowler in Tongue is also their quickest and Australia’s attack are a couple of miles an hour quicker on average, several in the case of Mitchell Starc, and this pitch will suit their style.

This was not a day for a team getting to 300 only three wickets down, as the Australians did before Joe Root’s golden arm pulled things back a bit to leave them five down at the close.