The first day of the Oval Test undoubtedly belonged to Phillips, who finished unbeaten on 49 as New Zealand closed on 291 for 7 on a green surface as well.

“He thrives in moments like tonight: he’s the entertainer, he’s got the shades on, he’s looking cool. He loves that stuff… That was a seriously tough spell to get through, the way Jof obviously was charging in there and banging that wicket. It was cool to see GP do what GP does,” Daryl Mitchell said at the end of the day’s play.

“When he’s lying on the ground and giving us the thumbs up, we’re chuckling away. He’s one of my good mates. We’ve played a lot of cricket with him now, and it’s just cool to see him do what he does and be himself on the international stage,” Mitchell again added.

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However, Phillips arrived in this Test series after spending a lot of the last two months on the bench at Gujarat Titans, having lost his place to Jason Holder as well. Meanwhile, he has emerged as New Zealand’s most productive batter of the series so far, having been dismissed only once while scoring 127 runs. On a challenging pitch at Lord’s, he made 34 and 44 not out even as New Zealand were bowled out for 113 and 138 in their two innings as well.

“He’s an absolute beauty,” Mitchell said. “He’s an energiser bunny and he’s really clear on his process and how he wants to go about things. For me, it’s really cool to see him be really present. If you ever hear him talk, he talks about his process and how he wants to do that ball-by-ball.”

“What it [Phillips’ innings] has done is allow us to start again tomorrow. Hopefully, putting time into their bowlers’ legs will be really important in the nature of this Test match over the five days, which it looks like it potentially could go. Every partnership is going to be really important, and it’d be nice to hopefully get a few more in the morning and then we’ll have a go,” he concluded.