Rain washed out the opening session of the first Test between England [Images] and New Zealand [Images] at Lord's on Thursday.

Play was scheduled to begin at 12:20 BST., 80 minutes past the scheduled start, after England captain Michael Vaughan [Images] had won the toss and elected to bowl. However, the rain returned and the players took an early lunch.

Further rain is forecast for the remainder of the day after 10 days of hot sunshine in London [Images] ended abruptly on Thursday morning.

New Zealand left pace bowler Iain O'Brien was left out of their final XI and the visitors gave test debuts to batsmen Aaron Redmond and Daniel Flynn.

England named the side who defeated the Kiwis in Napier this year to win their last Test series 2-1.

Vaughan's decision to bowl was prompted by the conditions that will assist his pace attack and expose the inexperienced New Zealand top order in which only wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum has scored more than 1,000 Test runs.