AT THE bottom of my garden the rooks are at their noisiest. As the summer progresses, they tend to fly farther afield during the day, leaving us in relative peace until the early evening, when again those raucous cries return to interrupt any attempt at an al fresco glass of wine before supper. In a few days’ time I will swap that unholy, tuneless chorus for the buzz of Lord’s as England’s long international summer begins with expectation high that an even more inexperienced New Zealand side than the one they faced in March will be brushed aside.

Just how easy it will be for England to achieve a clean sweep of the three-Test series remains to be seen, but one hopes England will not make it hard for themselves as they did in New Zealand, when the first Test went so horribly awry. The Black Caps like being underdogs and love putting dents in others’ ambitions.

Lord’s is a great place to start the summer. The ground retains its aura and MCC has its own grand designs, as it has demonstrated with the most recent plans for continued development of the site. Onwards and upwards is the way.

Just after the start of play, I normally find myself walking round the back of the grandstand against the flow of spectators who have missed the first few balls and are striding purposefully forwards, determined not to miss too many more. The sounds of Lord’s at that time include the muted conversations on the prospects for the day interspersed with the sounds of clinking glass as the first bottles are uncorked. Later on things will become, like the garden at home, a little rougher around the edges.

On the field it is back to business. England have had their ups and downs at Lord’s, a venue that always used to inspire me personally, even if the team did not always reflect that in our results.

Sometimes, particularly for my generation, the powers of inspiration worked better for the opposition, notably Australia, West Indies and India. The Aussies won there in 1985, their only success in a great year for England, then repeated the feat in 1989 to go two up from two in a disastrous summer for us.

Whenever there is a large fourth-innings run chase, statisticians always bring out the list of successful chases through the years and I tend to get Sir Ian guffawing – a more irritating noise than any rook – when the list gets to West Indies’ 344 for one in 1984 at Lord’s, victory by nine wickets with 11 overs to spare after I had declared half an hour into the morning. It may have been my declaration, but he did most of the bowling!

It was, to say the least, a flat surface on that fifth day in 1984. We have seen some good batting pitches at HQ in recent years too. Against West Indies last year, England declared at 553 for five, with four men making hundreds, but the pitch was benign enough and the weather kind enough, for about the only time last summer, for the visitors themselves to bat long enough and well enough to avoid losing.

Whoever plays at Lord’s this week, friend or foe, there will be the usual peculiarities to contend with. The infamous ridge at the Nursery End that was still evident when I began my career has long since been eased out of the pitch by the careful stewardship of head groundsman Michael Hunt, but there is nothing that even he can do about the equally infamous slope of the ground.

It affects batsmen and bowlers, and for those playing at this ground for the first time it can be a problem. For batsmen, the simple rule is to adjust one’s stance according to the effect of the slope. For a left-hander batting at the Nursery End, it might help to open the stance a little to try to counter the slope and gravity’s tendency to push front foot and therefore head position too far with the slope towards the Mound and Tavern stands. Balance is all with batting and that little adjustment is all it takes.

In a way it is simple logic, but that same simple logic does not always hold sway when it comes to bowlers’ favoured ends. One might assume that Ryan Sidebottom would want to come from the Pavilion End and use the slope to encourage what he hopes will be an already swinging ball to move further in to the right-handers when it pitches. Likewise Matthew Hoggard, if he is in the XI, would want to start at the Nursery End for the same reason, to enhance whatever movement is there in the air. Yet you can bet your bottom dollar that at some stage those same bowlers will be on at the “wrong” end and it might well work for them.

The simple rule at Lord’s is that whatever works is good. For a captain or the individual, the truth is that the quicker you work it out, the better, and don’t be afraid to head for Plan B quickly.

Experience counts

England's possible lineup for the first Test will have much more experience of playing at Lord's than their rivals

England at Lord’s Matthew Hoggard 11 Tests, Michael Vaughan 10, Andrew Strauss 8, Ian Bell 5, Kevin Pietersen 5, Paul Collingwood 4, Alastair Cook 4, Monty Panesar 4, James Anderson 3, Ryan Sidebottom 2, Tim Ambrose 0, Stuart Broad 0

New Zealand at Lord’s Daniel Vettori 2, Brendon McCullum 1, Chris Martin 1, Jacob Oram 1, all others 0

England’s record at Lord’s

v all Test opposition Played 113, won 42, lost 27, drawn 44

v New Zealand Played 14, won 6, lost 1, drawn 7