NASSER HUSSAIN: Josh Tongue provides a point of difference at 90mph on a good day for England

That was a really good field workout for England. All of their bowlers were very impressive and added different attributes to the attack.

This Test should be about beating Ireland, but England must have one eye on what comes next and both goals were well served on this first day of the Test summer at Lord’s.

I haven’t seen Josh Tongue live with the red ball – only really seen him play for Worcestershire on streams – and you could immediately see why England had picked him here.

Looking big and strong, the tongue curved at over 90 miles per hour as it provided a point of difference for England’s attack in the absence of the injured Jofra Archer, Olly Stone and Brydon Carse.

England’s supply is high in fast-medium bowlers but they don’t have too much fit for Mark Wood and they were right to play him in this Test because they know what they’ll get if they pick Chris Woakes in the Ashes .

You look at speeds, but you also need accuracy and Tongue was very accurate, even though maybe England overdid the short bowling with him. That wasn’t really necessary unless Stokes wanted to see how he was equipped to take on that role this summer.

The other thing Tongue is good at is creating angles in his action by leaning offside, kind of like Stokes when he bowls, so it looks like the ball is going into the right-handers but leaves them and lets them play on the balls she doesn’t need.

Tongue received his England cap from Jimmy Anderson and had Stuart Broad cheer him on before he had even bowled a ball. Can you imagine how much confidence that must have given him?

Matthew Potts also bowled well, even if his first spell to the right-hander was a bit nice and wide. After lunch, when he came around the wicket to the southpaw and brilliantly used the Heer’s slope to squeeze the ball back in and hold the line, he was rewarded when Andy McBrine teed off.

And Jack Leach bowled well, even if the problem will be for him when Australia come at him, as their left-handers in particular certainly will. Here Ireland sat on Leach and let him bowl. Australia just isn’t going to do that.

But the star of the show was Broad, who is just top notch. This was Broad’s 20th five wicket haul in Test cricket and he was excellent at bowling which this English regime encouraged him to do.

Broad brought the stumps into play and, in Anderson’s absence, was given use of the Pavilion End for the first time, where he actually has a much better record at Lord’s.

It’s tempting to wonder if Broad would have taken any more Test wickets without Anderson around, but the fact is they’ve kept each other going over the years and shared their skills in partnership.

England’s catch was good and that will be important in the Ashes as the last thing they want is to give chances to Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne before they get underway.

And they will be encouraged by Jonny Bairstow’s return from behind the stumps. His catching ability and movement were good and it was especially enjoyable to watch him dive to the left and test out that leg he had broken so badly late last summer.

To top off the performance, Stoke’s captaincy was once again excellent. It’s just the subtle little things like moving the center of the wicket straight into leg slip when Harry Tector came in and then watching him send Broad straight to Potts for their second ball.

Add in the half-century for Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett before the end and this was a good day for England, one they needed at the start of a big summer.