One day he was playing at Lord's for his country, the next he had to be helped out of bed by his Dad. It was quite a weekend for Luke Wright.

The Sussex all-rounder was due to return to county duty on Sunday after playing the tenth one-day international of his career 24 hours earlier.

But Wright's back cramped up on an arduous car journey back from London on Saturday night and the next morning he could not even get out of bed.

He said: "I'd had a rub-down with the physio after the game because I felt a bit sore and the journey home took ages because of bad traffic.

"On Sunday morning my dad had to help me out of my bed because my back had gone into spasm.

"I've never had back trouble before, it felt like cramps in the lower part of my back and it got really stiff once they had stopped."

By Monday, after more treatment, the pain had eased and Wright was able to reflect on a mixed series against the Kiwis, who clinched the series 3-1.

He played in all five games, four of them as opener, before dropping down to No. 6 at Lord's to accomodate the return of Alistair Cook.

Wright, 23, made a meaty 52 off 38 balls in the second game against Edgbaston but scores of 11, 2 and 18 on the other occasions he opened suggests he has yet to find consistency in the role.

He averages 16.6 opening compared to 25.4 when he has batted at either six or seven. But even though the statistics suggest he might be more suited down the order, Wright is desperate for further opportunities up front.

"It is still a learning experience for me," he added. "Ian Bell and I got a few decent starts and I enjoyed batting with him so I'd love to carry on opening.

"Obviously I would have liked to score more runs, although there are quite a few batsmen on both sides who would have liked to do the same."

What did please Wright, and coach Peter Moores, was that he made a greater impression with the ball than he had done before for England, that memorable last over in Napier in March excepted.

His statistics were modest enough, three wickets at 38.33 apiece and an economy rate of 5.00, but captain Paul Collingwood and his stand-in at Lord's, Kevin Pietersen, were confident enough to give him longer spells although it was the second of his paltry two overs at The Oval which was probably the highlight of the series.

Wright conceded just a single off the first five balls leaving the Kiwis needing two to win. England would have at least tied the match had Graeme Swann's throw to the non-striker's end been a bit more accurate.

Instead it eluded three men including Wright and New Zealand's last-wicket pair scampered through for a match-winning second run. "I've never felt quite so upset after a game of cricket," said Wright.

"It was such a great game with both sides looking like they were going to win at various stages. To get so close and lose was hard to take.

"Losing the series was hard to take, too, because we had so many chances. I felt we played the perfect one-day game when KP got his hundred at Durham. We should have won at Bristol and not lost at the Oval so to come away beaten 3-1 was massively disappointing.

"We just didn't score enough runs but it was a weird series because lots of guys got starts on both sides but apart from Kevin, no one made a hundred.

"The bonus for me was the amount of bowling I did. It has helped bowling much more for Sussex this year but to get into a position where they are looking to me to bowl six or seven overs rather than three or four is a big plus.

"Going into the series I was probably third or fourth change to use if things weren't going right but now I am getting to a stage where I might bowl all ten overs and overs at the death."

Wright and the rest of his Sussex team-mates have the next fortnight to lick their wounds and prepare for the second half of the season. His next England target is the Twenty20 international in Durham on August 20 against South Africa, by which time he will have played five Pro40 games.

He added: "More experience is the only way I'm going to improve as an opener and I'd definitely like to open when our Pro40 League matches start.

"Facing the new ball is always going to make you a batter batsman, whether you open or bat down the order."