Facing the second best team in the world with a full strength team would have been a difficult enough task for England this week at Lord's. But doing so without four of their first choice players, and three others who would have made a case for inclusion, has made the challenge even harder. They will be pleased, then, that the performances of two players who came into this game with uncertainty over their places have put them in a good position at the end of the second day.

Rory Burns endured a difficult winter. Having missed the Sri Lanka tour to be at the birth of his first child, Burns was dropped for the final two Tests of the India series after two ducks in four attempts. It left him uncertain of his place at the start of the summer but his good form for Surrey sealed a return to the team for this match. Even so, Burns will have been aware that an average of 30.73 after 23 Tests requires improvement. His unbeaten half-century was therefore timely.

Mark Wood had a better time of things during the winter - he was excellent in two Tests in Sri Lanka - but he still had questions about his place coming into this game. After all, his bowling average in Test cricket is significantly better away from home than in England, 23 compared to more than 43.

There is no obvious reason for that anomaly. Wood can move the ball off the seam and in the air and has had plenty of success for Durham in the County Championship. But so far in his Test career, he has been vastly more effective overseas than at home. He surely can't have been helped by his sporadic appearances in England. This is just his 11th home Test since his debut in 2015. Nevertheless, few bowlers can sustain a place in a team when averaging more than 40.

But like Burns, Wood's performance was vital for England on a balmy second day. His burst of three wickets for four runs in 5.3 overs during the morning session changed the course of the day. In the first hour, England were ragged and flat, bowling too full and fielding sloppily. New Zealand had milked 45 runs without alarm and looked set for a sizeable total. But then, Wood, in conjunction with Ollie Robinson, provided the spark England so desperately needed.

Operating in the mid to high eighties, Wood did not bowl as quick as he did yesterday, when he was regularly ten miles an hour faster. Instead, he hit a good length consistently, found a little bit of movement and used the short ball judiciously rather than overwhelmingly.

That is not always the case with Wood. Often, Root asks him to bowl short and aggressively to make things happen. That sort of plan has a time and a place, particularly given Wood's high pace, but he has more skill to offer than constantly bashing the ball into the middle of the pitch. The delivery to dismiss BJ Watling, which shaped away late to take the edge as the batsman looked to play through the leg-side, was a fine piece of bowling.

The short ball is clearly an important part of Wood's armoury. Henry Nicholls was late on a pull shot that flew to long leg and the mere threat of it can put batsmen on the back foot. Mitchell Santner was certainly hanging back when he chipped Wood to James Anderson at mid-off. But the short ball is just one part of Wood's game, not the extent of it.

After the insipidness of the first hour, England's batsmen may well have resigned themselves to another long day in the field but instead they were batting midway through the second session. It didn't take long for the early wickets that dogged them in India to resurface, however. Dom Sibley made his sixth single figure score in a row, dismissed LBW to Kyle Jamieson, while Zak Crawley swiped at a wide ball from Tim Southee to leave England in trouble at 18 for 2.

England needed a contribution from Burns and, thankfully for them and him, they got it. The left-hander has scored plenty of runs for Surrey this season and his game looks to be in good order for the time spent at the crease. More than most players, given the number of moving parts to his technique, Burns needs the opportunity to groove his movements. He did not have that during the winter, when he was parachuted straight into a Test match in Chennai without any game time since the previous September.

Even when everything is working in sync, Burns is not always the most fluent of batsmen but he wasted no time in getting into his groove here. He pulled the third ball of England's innings dismissively through midwicket for four, an early indication of the sweet timing and positive intent that he was to display throughout.

Later, when Neil Wagner reverted to his trademark short ball barrage, Burns took him on. Rather than duck or sway or defend, Burns played pull shot after pull shot, aggression meeting aggression. He crunched Wagner through square leg for four and milked singles down to fine leg. Soon, the left-arm seamer was hauled out of the attack by Kane Williamson. It was a victory for Burns' positive outlook. Even into the day's last knockings, he was looking to score. It has been an impressive innings so far, particularly in terms of intent.

Burns and England still have plenty of work to do, though. They remain 267 runs behind and, as the afternoon proved, they will be given nothing easy by New Zealand's high-quality attack. Their fast-bowlers found seam and swing more or less all day while there was some sharp turn for Santner too.

The pitch is also beginning to display signs of uneven bounce. One ball from Southee to Burns rolled along the floor outside off stump while Colin de Grandhomme found extra bounce to hit Root on the glove twice. Batting in the fourth innings looks likely to be tough work which makes it vital that England get close to New Zealand's total tomorrow.

That they have the chance to do just that is, in large part, due to the displays of Wood and Burns today. Their performances were pivotal to England remaining in this contest. Given the players who are missing, the class of the opposition and the pressure both players were under, for different reasons, ahead of this game, it was a fine effort indeed. There is, however, plenty of work ahead for each of them in this Test and during the rest of the summer. A good start, then, but no more than that.