ANTHONY McGrath has urged England to stick with Adam Lyth through this summer's Ashes series as the Yorkshire opener prepares to make his second Test appearance against New Zealand at Headingley tomorrow.

Lyth opens with Alastair Cook after scoring seven and 12 in last week's Lord's debut.

The 27-year-old scored 1,400 runs in last season's Championship and was the obvious choice to partner Cook for the recent West Indies series.

England chose Jonathan Trott, who struggled and has since retired from internationals, which finally gave Lyth his chance.

"Ideally, you want a good start to take the pressure off because you're always going to have that scrutiny in international cricket," said McGrath, Yorkshire's batting consultant who played for England in 2003-04.

"I just hope they give him the full summer because it makes no sense to pick someone and just give them a couple of Tests.

"There's a new coach coming in in Trevor Bayliss, and he might have some new ideas. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

"But I hope they say 'Here's seven Tests. We've picked you because you've been consistent for the last two years in county cricket, and we're going to back you'.

"I don't think we do that enough in this country, identify a player. I think we can even have too many players to pick from to an extent.

"If you look at New Zealand with Guptill, McCullum, even Kane Williamson, I think his first 15 or so Tests only averaged 20. But they stick with these players probably because they don't have the pool of players.

"It gives the selected ones a chance to gain experience and learn."

McGrath says it is "fair" to suggest that the best way of dealing with Lyth would be to not go down the route England took with his own international career, which amounted to only four Tests and 14 ODIs.

"There's a number of players in that bracket in the last ten to 20 years," he added.

"There are far too many who have come in and just had a couple of Tests, which is very difficult for the individual.

"Ian Bell is one they stuck with. He didn't have the best of Ashes series in 2005, but that experience being around the environment has stood him in good stead."