While Fleming conceded that all-rounders Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, as well as wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, would cause problems for Australia he was scathing in his assessment of Keaton Jennings, Tom Westley and Dawid Malan.

“England needs three decent batsman in their top six,” Fleming, who played 20 tests and 88 one-dayers when Australia were in their pomp in the 1990s, told Melbourne’s RSN radio.

“Watching the South African series, they’re some of the worst batsmen I’ve ever seen play test cricket.”

England beat South Africa 3-1 in the just-completed series but Fleming said the retention for the Ashes of opener Jennings and top order batsman Westley would offer plenty of opportunities for the Australian bowlers.

“(Jennings) scored 127 runs at an average of 15. I used to bat nine in test matches and I would just be happy with that, averaging 15. Just be happy. He’s opening the batting,” Fleming added. “I don’t like his technique, closed grip, he’s going to nick people that can angle the ball across him and bowlers that can actually get the ball to shape back in, that gap between bat and front pad. This is an opening batsman.

“Westley has a similar technique. He is squared up, he has hands that are a long way in front of his body with a closed grip. How does he hit the ball through the off side? He’s going to nick off or get in trouble with the ball that comes in.

“Where are 80 percent of the deliveries going to be to Jennings and Westley? Outside off stump, maybe shaping away. They don’t have a technique to cope with that.” Westley and Malan made their test debuts in the third test against the Proteas, with the former taking over at “first drop” from the injured Gary Ballance, who did not escape Fleming’s brutal analysis.

“How did Gary Ballance play test cricket again after that last series two years ago there?” Fleming said, referring to the batsman’s axing after two tests of the 2015 Ashes.

“Young Malan, 35 runs at an average of eight. There’s real opportunities for Australia to run through the top order.”

His 85-ball hundred, the fastest Test century ever scored at Lord’s in terms of balls faced, played a key role in turning the tide of the series opener, which England won by 124 runs to go 1-0 up in the two-match contest on Monday.
The 23-year-old had already helped rescue England from the depths of 30 for four in their first innings by making 92 while adding 161 with Joe Root (98).
And, just for good measure, the Durham man, who came to England with his family as a 12-year-old, took three for 38 on Monday’s final day, including the wickets of danger man Kane Williamson and New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum in successive balls.
But Root, like Stokes one of several young players who shone for England at Lord’s including debutant fast bowler Mark Wood, is confident the all-rounder won’t get carried away with the hype that followed his second Test century, which came some 18 months after his first, in Perth.
“He will be fine,” said Root of Stokes.
“When he is batting, he is a free spirit; he goes and plays his shots and puts sides under pressure.
“Even in times of struggle, when we are 30 for four, he came out and put them on the back foot,” vice-captain Root added.
“It will not work every time and could have looked slightly reckless if it didn’t come off.
“The key for him and the rest of us now is to make sure it is not a one-off and go on and do it again this week.”
The first Test was notable too for a marathon innings of 162 by England captain Alastair Cook that left the opener just 32 runs shy of overtaking Essex mentor Graham Gooch’s England Test runs record of 8,900.
So it was no surprise that new England coach Trevor Bayliss, who will take over in time for the Ashes, was heartened by what he had seen.

“I’ve been staying up late into the night watching the last Test at Lord’s to do some research and it’s great to see,” said the Australian.
“I’d much rather come into working with a team that’s on a high.”
For New Zealand, defeat was tough to take as so many of their players had set their hearts on becoming just the second Black Caps side, after the 1999 team, to win a Test at Lord’s.
They also did many of the things that would normally secure a victory, scoring more than 700 runs in the match and taking 20 wickets.
But in the end they were well beaten.

– Turning point –

“It was such a game of punch and counter-punch,” said New Zealand coach Mike Hesson.
“It was really the fourth day that turned it around, we felt we bowled well enough to get three or four wickets in the morning but Alastair Cook and the way Ben Stokes and Joe Root played took the game away from us. That was the turning point.”
Wicket-keeper BJ Watling suffered a knee injury at Lord’s and spent much of the match off the field, with Tom Latham deputising behind the stumps.
“BJ’s not 100 percent, clearly his knee is still an issue. He struggles to push off and get a lot of power so he’s fifty-fifty (to play in the second Test) at this stage,” added Hesson.
Meanwhile New Zealand opener Martin Guptill said the side knew how to bounce back from defeat.
“On the last day (at Lord’s), we just didn’t quite get the batting right,” Guptill said, but said his team had recovered straight away from a big loss before and were capable of doing it at Headingley.
He added: “We showed against Australia, in 2011, winning in Hobart — bouncing back from a heavy defeat in Brisbane.
“I hope we can do that again this week… we’re all raring to go for Friday.”

BJ Watling and Corey Anderson, however, shared an unbroken sixth-wicket partnership of 73 to give the touring side hope of saving the game and, chasing 345 for victory, they reached 134 for five at tea.
Anderson got to his fifty off 44 balls and was 51 not out at the interval with Watling unbeaten on 36.
Stokes, who struck the fastest test century at the home of cricket on Sunday, had the obdurate Williamson caught by Joe Root in the slips for 27 before bowling captain McCullum with a venomous delivery which cut back sharply.
Anderson survived the hat-trick ball and immediately went on the attack, hitting Stokes for two fours and a six, and he continued to play positively alongside the more circumspect Watling.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad ripped out the New Zealand top order to give England the scent of victory before lunch.
Martin Guptill edged Anderson’s second ball of the innings to Gary Ballance at third slip.
Broad trapped Tom Latham lbw with his first delivery to reduce the touring side to nought for two and then dismissed Ross Taylor in the same manner to leave New Zealand in tatters at 12 for three.
Williamson and Watling guided their side to the interval without further loss at 21 for three.
Earlier, New Zealand left-arm seamer Trent Boult picked up the last four wickets in under an hour to dismiss England for 478.
England resumed on 429 for six and Boult had captain Alastair Cook caught by wicketkeeper Latham for 162 before bowling Broad for 10.
Moeen Ali was lbw for 43 and Anderson was bowled for nought to give Boult figures of five for 85 and nine wickets in the match.

England 1st Innings 389
(J Root 98, B Stokes 92, J Buttler 67, M Ali 58; T Boult 4-79, M Henry 4-93)
New Zealand 1st Innings 523
(K Williamson 132, M Guptill 70, R Taylor 62, BJ Watling 61 no, T Latham 59; S Broad 3-77, M Wood 3-93, M Ali 3-94)
England 2nd Innings (overnight: 74-2)
A. Lyth c Southee b Boult 12
A. Cook c Latham b Boult 162
G. Ballance b Southee 00
I. Bell c Latham b Southee 29
J. Root c Boult b Henry 84
B. Stokes c Taylor b Craig 101
J. Buttler c Latham b Henry 14
M. Ali lbw b Boult 43

S. Broad b Boult 10
M. Wood not out 04
J. Anderson b Boult 00
Extras (b2, lb12, w5) 19
Total (all out, 129 overs, 571 mins) 478
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-25, 3-74, 4-232, 5-364, 6-389, 7-455, 8-467, 9-478
Bowling: Boult 34-8-85-5; Southee 34-4-162-2 (1w); Henry 29-3-106-2 (3w); Craig 28-3-96-1 (1w); Anderson 3-0-13-0; Williamson 1-0-2-0

New Zealand 2nd Innings (target: 345)

M. Guptill c Ballance b Anderson 00
T. Latham lbw b Broad 00
K. Williamson c Root b Stokes 27
R. Taylor lbw b Broad 08
B. Watling not out 36
B. McCullum b Stokes 00
C. Anderson not out 51
Extras (b-5 lb-7) 12
Total (for 5 wickets, 41 overs) 134
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-0, 3-12, 4-61, 5-61
Bowling : J. Anderson 9 – 5 – 11 – 1, S. Broad 11 – 3 – 28 – 2, M. Wood 8 – 2 – 20 – 0, B. Stokes 7 – 3 – 28 – 2, M. Ali 6 – 1 – 35 – 0

In July last year, Stokes was out for a duck in each innings of the Lord’s Test, a match India won by 95 runs to go 1-0 up in the series.

Stokes, in the thick of a miserable run of low scores for England in all formats, was dropped and it wasn’t until last month that he resumed his Test career, against the West Indies in the Caribbean.

It had earlier been the scene of one of Stokes’ career lows when, in 2014, he broke his wrist hitting a locker in frustration after a golden duck in a Twenty20 match against the West Indies in Bridgetown

“Punching the locker was a stupid moment and something, I hope, I’ll never do again — because lockers are generally harder than bones and wrists,” Stokes said after Thursday’s play.

Hours earlier, the 23-year-old Durham all-rounder had walked out to bat with England in the dire position of 30 for four after losing the toss.

However, he responded by putting on 161 for the fifth wicket with Joe Root — who also fell shy of a hundred in making 98.

Stokes was bowled Thursday playing no stroke to off-spinner Mark Craig when in sight of what would have been just his second Test century following a dynamic 120 against Australia in Perth in 2013.

England eventually finished the first day of this two-match series on 354 for seven and Stokes, trying to put his innings into context, said: “I bagged a pair last time I was here, so things couldn’t have got any worse really.

“It was obviously disappointing to get out so close to a hundred at Lord’s.

“But the bigger picture is we’re in a really good position now,” added Stokes, the New Zealand-born, but England-raised, son of former Kiwi rugby league international Ged Stokes who, together with his wife, is now back living in Christchurch.

Having followed his son’s innings from New Zealand, Ged Stokes tweeted: “@benstokes38 @clarey_11 off to bed very well batted my boy#proudmum&dad.”