England coach Trevor Bayliss admitted he was “embarrassed” on Thursday after a collapse to 58 all out against New Zealand which left him struggling for answers.
“It was a very poor effort today, it just simply wasn’t good enough,” Bayliss said, at the end of one of the worst days in England Test history.
It was their sixth lowest Test score and only an heroic 33 not out by number nine batsman Craig Overton ensured they passed the world record lowest innings of 26 set by New Zealand in 1955.
At stumps the Black Caps, seemingly untroubled by the conditions in the first day-night Test in New Zealand, were firmly in command at 175 for three, a lead of 117 runs with seven wickets in hand.
“We’ve got the best team from England we can pick here,” Bayliss said, admitting he was “hurt” by the performance.
“We’ve got to sit down and have a good chat about it. Is it a mental approach? Is it something in our preparation? Are we good enough at working out how to actually play when we do lose one or two early wickets?” the coach added.
“Embarrassed? Certainly, and I probably wasn’t the only one in our change room. It’s certainly not good enough.”
New Zealand only needed two bowlers, Trent Boult – who finished with a career best six for 32 – and Tim Southee, who took four for 25, in an innings that lasted just 20.4 overs.
But Bayliss said that while New Zealand performed well with the ball, he believed the problem lay with the England batsmen.
“I thought the New Zealand bowlers bowled extremely well and we batted equally as badly,” he said.
“I thought we made a lot of mistakes with our footwork. The ball was swinging a little bit but when the ball’s pitched up it’s as simple as it gets and a lot of our guys were out today playing from behind the crease to fairly full balls.”
Apart from Overton, opener Mark Stoneman’s 11 was the only other England score in double figures, while captain Joe Root led a parade of five players out for a duck.
New Zealand’s batting was far more solid with Kane Williamson not out 91 at stumps while Tom Latham, Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls all made it into the twenties.