The opening day of the Oval Test featured amusing contradictions. It began with Joe Root stepping out in his old captain's blazer and opting to bowl first after winning the toss, and ended with Glenn Phillips batting in sunglasses. Whether Root's return to captaincy proves temporary or develops into a longer-term storyline remains to be seen, but the honours on the opening day undoubtedly belonged to Phillips, who finished unbeaten on 49 as New Zealand closed on 291 for 7 on a green-tinged surface.

The highlight of a captivating day's play was unquestionably Phillips calling for a pair of sunglasses in the 67th over to combat the glare from sunlight reflecting off the sightscreen. As it turned out, the very first ball he faced wearing them saw him struck on the shoulder by a sharp Jofra Archer bumper. Archer was brought back for a fourth spell late in the day after Phillips had raced to 33 off 23 deliveries, taking advantage of some loose bowling from debutant Sonny Baker.

Archer then unleashed a barrage of short-pitched deliveries at Phillips, one of which narrowly missed his head and left him lying flat on his back for a few moments. Phillips responded by simply lifting his head and giving a thumbs-up towards the New Zealand dressing room. It was a remarkable passage of play, one that Phillips navigated expertly to keep New Zealand in a strong position, even if the Oval pitch has generally become easier for batting as matches progress over the last two seasons.

"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 added.

Phillips arrived in this Test series after spending much of the last two months on the bench at Gujarat Titans, having lost his place to Jason Holder. Yet 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 last week, he made 34 and 44 not out even as New Zealand were bowled out for 113 and 138 in their two innings.

"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."