England face delicate balancing act at Lord's

LONDON (Reuters) - England face a delicate balancing act at Lord's on Thursday where they take on a New Zealand side they must beat convincingly if they are to mount a serious challenge to South Africa this year and Australia in 2009.

On one hand, England need to concentrate on the immediate task against a team who relish the role of underdogs. On the other, they have to look ahead and quickly establish an XI capable of emulating the 2005 Ashes heroes.

"If you don't look at the now and also a bit in the future then you're probably not doing your job," coach Peter Moores told a news conference on Tuesday.

"It's a balance between both. We have to develop teams in the long term but also got to win in the short term."

Four years ago, England beat New Zealand 3-0 and West Indies 4-0 to set themselves up for the Ashes triumph over the Australians in the following year.

This year they are clearly superior on paper to a New Zealand side who have lost their entire top order batting in the intervening years.

But they are also uncomfortably aware that they were comprehensively outplayed by the Kiwis in the first test in Hamilton this year before the visitors rallied to take the series 2-1.

New Zealand are led by the canny Daniel Vettori, the best orthodox spinner in the world and a remarkably effective batsman at number eight. They also possess a sensational one-day batsman in wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum and a fine all-rounder in Jacob Oram plus a disciplined pace attack.

UNDER-RATED

"They are under-rated, they've got real quality bowlers, real quality batters, they play as a unit and their fielding is electric," England's leading batsman Kevin Pietersen told reporters this week.

Chris Martin, New Zealand's leading strike bowler, told a news conference on Tuesday that the pressure was on the home side.

"Maybe they do read the papers a bit more than they should. I know there is a lot of media hype to bring the English team up, that they should really stamp on us and destroy us," he said.

England were diffident in Hamilton and not totally convincing in the remaining two, despite finishing as victors.

Captain Michael Vaughan, who will drop down to number three, needs a big score soon and the remainder of the top six remain inconsistent despite their impressive overall test averages.

Left-arm paceman Ryan Sidebottom was the difference between the sides and Richard Hadlee, the Kiwi master of swing and seam who was the first man to take 400 test wickets, has said he will again be the key player in the three-test series.

"It's a massive compliment coming from such a great bowler," Sidebottom responded.

Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard paid the price for the Hamilton loss and, although Hoggard is in the 12-man squad, he may again miss out on Thursday with the selectors preferring younger men in Stuart Broad and James Anderson.

New Zealand will be heartened by the form of new opener Aaron Redmond, who scored 146 and 64 against the English Lions.

Teams:

England (from) - Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan (captain), Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Tim Ambrose, Stuart Broad, Matthew Hoggard, Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.

New Zealand (probable) - Jamie How, Aaron Redmond, James Marshall, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Flynn, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori (captain), Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Chris Martin.

Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Simon Taufel (Australia).

(Editing by Clare Lovell)