Former English skipper Nasser Hussain and Bob Willis have demanded action from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) following the embarrassing performance that saw Joe Root and his men getting dismissed for 58 on day one of the first Test against New Zealand in Auckland.

England was completely outplayed prior to lunch at Eden Park on Thursday, Trent Boult and Tim Southee reducing the visitors to 27-9 before Craig Overton (33*) made sure that the Englishmen at least surpassed their lowest Test score of 45.

Also read: Nasser Hussain remarked Mohammad Kaif as bus driver 

Former England skipper Nasser Hussain and Willis blasted their country’s display when they appeared on Sky Sports. Hussain said, “If this was a one-off we could sit here and say ‘it was a bad start, England could come back into it’, … but their record away from home is abysmal. They’ve got to realize that they’ve got a problem and they need to start doing something about it rapidly.”

Willis, who described England’s batting display as a “total embarrassment”, said: “You can’t go into a Test series, albeit only two Test matches long, with the preparation England had. What did they have? Two warm-up matches, 14-a-side, you bat one day, we’ll bat the next day – no competitive edge to it at all, just go out and enjoy yourself in the middle.”

He further added, “When Andrew Strauss’ side won in Australia [in 2010-11], they had really competitive matches before that Test series. It’s not that easy to persuade people that change is necessary, but these results will persuade people.”

Following up on Willis’ reference to England’s last successful Ashes tour, Hussain added: “Look at that side, the way they prepared for one of the great victories away from home in 2010-11. Every game was absolutely vital and look at that result. That has to be mirrored on future tours. This wasn’t good enough, this preparation.”

Also read: Stokes levelled the ODI series against New Zealand

Hussain also had words of denunciation for Root and his men, adding: “We’re letting the players off lightly here. The players will be sitting back here going, ‘oh great, they’re blaming the administrators here, it’s all down to scheduling’. The way they batted today was not down to scheduling.”

The former skipper concluded by stating that the current batting line-up is pretty fragile, he said, “These things do happen, but it’s part of a much bigger malaise that’s going on. Even in the [English] summer when they were winning games, this is a very fragile batting line-up and it looks like their only option ever, to get out of trouble, is to play the big shot, play the attacking option. What happened to the days where you see off the new ball, where you defend, you make the bowler get you out. Have those days gone?”