England Lions v New Zealand

New Zealand 184/3, Rutherford has made a quick hundred, but they're off for rain at the moment. Roland-Jones has got 2 wickets so far, with a first-class bowling average of 20, he must be in the England selectors thoughts at the moment?

The Lions have picked up Rutherford (run out) & McCullum this morning, however Brownlie & Watling are putting together a decent partnership. 244/5, at a healthy 4 runs an over

With Taylor, Root and Bairstow all in the side, it should get quite interesting when the Lions bat. Not too far off now I'd have thought, NZ are 262/7.

285 all out, 4 wickets for TRJ on his lions debut.

Have to say I like the Lions set up but am confused about it's purpose. What do we gain from playing Root (surely already nailed on to play the Test series) and Bopara/Onions (have played loads of games for England already)?

Taylor/Bairstow is good as they seem to be the two fighting it out to replace KP and the rest of the side is OK I just don't see what is gained by selecting the three I mention above.

I think the Lions serves different purposes at different times. I'd say in Root's case its being used to give him some exposure and confidence against our Test opponents as he did not do too well against them in the away series.

Generally it seems to be a mixture of Test reserves and promising prospects. I suppose Root could fit into the former category anyway as he is not a nailed on Test match starter just yet. Bopara worryingly seems to be in that category and Onions is probably our reserve seamer.

In order of priority, the purpose of home Lions matches is probably:

1/ To give our opponents a good warm-up game (we always moan when we don't get a good one away, so right for us to give a good one).
2/ To see how the reserves do against an international outfit.
3/ To give out of form/ peripheral players a chance to prove their form.
4/ To work on building an England squad rather than just an England team.

Its slightly annoying that they clash with county games, but in some ways that's unavoidable. With county scheduling I always go back to what the ECB's scheduling guru told Sky a couple of years ago - 'you can have what you want but you can't have it all'.

I agree with that but Bopara is a pointless selection whichever way you look at it.

Root is on 145* atm to go with his last two innings of 180 and 200+. what's the betting he gets a pair for England next week? Bairstow heading for a 50 which is good having been named in the team for the first Test

Root eventually out for 179 in a heavily rain-affected match. Heading for a very bleak draw, and I don't think NZ will be too delighted with how this warm-up has gone.

Disappointing from Root - his lowest score in his last 3 first class innings.

As said above, almost certain now to bag a pair in the first Test.