New Zealand are coming to England for a short test series, too short in my opinion, for the first time as relative equals to their hosts, if not favourites. Their dynamic approach to one day cricket has earned them many fans and critical plaudits. They have talented, young players who excite and play the game in a healthy manner; a far cry from the years of what now appear to be mistrust and alleged spot fixing in the 90s and early 00s. This excitement has translated in to results at the pinnacle of the sport, in test cricket with us having to go back to when New Zealand were last in England to find their last series defeat. Since then they have played Bangladesh, West Indies, India, West Indies again and Pakistan. They only drew in Bangladesh on flat wickets any team would have struggled on and against Pakistan in UAE, winning a memorable 3rd match thanks in the most part to a double hundred from their talismanic captain Brendon McCullum.

England meanwhile are in a period of transition and upheaval, a seemingly divided dressing room and a management that is part unknown and part at odds with itself; the ECB very much resembles the UK Labour Party at the moment. Their most recent test cricket experience in the West Indies did not go according to plan as they were no better than their severely understrength opponents. England too were understrength but that was through self-immolation and conservatism as opposed to the IPL riches tempting underpaid players away. They beat India comfortably last year but succumbed to Sri Lanka, a team they were expected to beat handsomely.

With one team on the up and the other apparently coming down the other side of the wave crest they were surfing the two tests make for a fascinating encounter, and all too short an encounter to settle which is the better side; if one test is rain affected it will become a one test series, a fairly hopeless state of affairs but the Ashes is king and all must bow down before it, sadly.

New Zealand are a well organised side and have strength all throughout their line-up. Martin Guptil seems to be maturing in to a fine opening batsman while McCullum has dropped the wicket keeping gloves to turn himself in to a brutal attacking player at the top of the order. The test cricket star has to be Kane Williamson who over the past two years has amassed 1665 runs with an average of 69.37; six hundreds and seven 50s in those 15 tests show a middle order consistency that New Zealand have craved since Martin Crowe retired (best wishes to him and his family too). Ross Taylor is capable of turning a game on its head by himself in a couple of sessions, if his mood is right while B J Watling, under the watchful eye of McCullum is a very handy batsman/keeper himself. Latham and Anderson offer terrific back up while Southee and Boult will be hard to shift at the lower end of the batting order.

No real weak links in the batting, at least on the evidence of statistics and form. The bowling is less secure now that Daniel Vettori has fully retired. The lack of spin means all the work will be taken by the pace bowlers, though in early summer in England that may be a blessing in disguise as the Dukes ball tends to swing, seam and move about just enough to keep the batsmen honest. Southee and Boult are up there with any opening bowling partnership in the world right now. Boult has genuine pace and that left arm angle has caused problems particularly for Alistair Cook in the past. His partner in crime Southee has the ability to swing the new and old ball and possesses a wicked bouncer which can often catch batsmen off guard. Matt Henry and Neil Wagner are the obvious back-ups though Craig and Bracewell are in the squad. If England can see off the opening pair, they would fancy making big runs against the second string.

England’s bowling is bound to be a strength in English conditions. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad have taken more wickets in the last two years than any other bowler, though they have played significantly more games than most. The spin option will still be debated; many think Moeen Ali is not a front line spinner while the England selectors seem reluctant to try the left-field leg spin of Adil Rashid. Mark Wood, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes are the other seam bowlers in the squad and one of them presumably will miss out; it’s a decent second string but surely the out and out pace of a Plunkett or a Finn would have given a greater expanse of options to the captain on the field. If the ball doesn’t swing, then this bowling line up is in trouble against the big hitting New Zealanders.

England are now trying batsman number 27 to open with Alistair Cook, an exaggeration I know but it does feel that way sometimes. Adam Lyth comes in after serving his time on the county circuit for almost ten years now; he looks older than his 27 years but is a positive opener who will look to score boundaries early on, and he’s a fantastic slip fielder to boot. Cook had a good tour of the West Indies; his movement was restored and the stress of not having the one-day team to manage seemed to have reinvigorated him. Has he turned the corner? We’ll know at the end of the summer but this series will be a good indication of where the captain’s head is at; hopefully not falling away to mid-off. The middle order is solid with Root and Ballance scoring runs for fun averaging high fifties and early sixties respectively while Ian Bell will no doubt score runs once more back at home; he was the star man during the last Ashes summer and will be hoping to regain that form. Moeen can be destructive lower down as can Stokes, the jury is out as to whether either has the technique to get them through in test cricket though. Buttler, we hope, can do for England what McCullum used to do for NZ and be that quick run getter in the lower middle order, his problem may be keeping partners as England seem to have re-entered the period of six-out-all-out, as Broad now seems a shadow of his former self. His swishing blade used to look Sobers-esque at times – his 169 against Pakistan was beautiful but that seems a long time ago and he is quite literally afraid of the short ball now, which ultimately is pathetic – he should have a chat with Brian Close.

The elephant in the room is Kevin Pietersen which I have spoken about before so I needn’t reiterate my views here. Needless to say though, if England don’t get big runs, if they don’t get high three or four hundreds in first innings’ then the pens of Pietersen’s ardent supporters will be sharpened and the ECB will look mighty stupid for omitting him, the fans will feel as though they have been sold short and questions will be asked. I want Pieteresen there, I feel England NEED Pietersen there, I hope to be proved wrong.

Let battle commence