Ian Bell: Key to success is filling our boots in first dig

England need to start winning Test matches. To do that we have to get the process right again. Put bluntly, that means scoring runs in the first innings. We haven't done that for a while, six matches; too long. We've talked about it a lot, and there are many goals people want to achieve in this series coming up against New Zealand.

There are things we haven't done particularly well and there are hungry people. You have to have that as much as anything when you're playing the Kiwis. They don't have a lot of superstars but they are a team who function well together, and they're really streetfighters who don't give much away and will stand their ground. We must be wary of that and make sure we go out and play good cricket for long enough, something we have been guilty of not doing in the last couple of series.

When England were very successful over a two- to three-year period, we scored 400 to 500 every time and someone got a hundred. Et voilà, batsmen score hundreds, England win Test matches. Our bowling attack bowls better when we have runs on the board. That was proven in Sri Lanka.

I will bat at No 5 in the First Test at Hamilton, for the first time since my debut at The Oval against West Indies in 2004. At the end of my career, I want to be able to say I gave everything my best shot. True, I have always said I want to test myself at No 3. If that opportunity comes along I will take it, but at the moment I'm at No 5 and I'm a team player. I want to be involved in England teams, I want to be involved in the Ashes in 2009.

People do say that it's slightly easier batting at No 5 or No 6, but there are no easy places. There are different circumstances, different struggles. There is a different mindset, a lot longer to wait to bat, the likelihood of facing the second new ball.

It's great to have Andrew Strauss back. We were at the Academy together, his presence in the dressing room is significant and his ability as a batsman is not in doubt. He's got 10 hundreds and 11 fifties, and if we're going to beat Australia we're going to need hundreds.

That's why the hundreds that Strauss and I scored yesterday in Dunedin were important. It's not good enough to score 80 in a warm-up match and walk off thinking that you're in form. Hundreds become a habit.

We mustn't forget that New Zealand are allowed to play good cricket. What we have to ensure is we are doing the right things at the right time – getting the process right. As a batting unit, we want to score five hundreds in this series. If we do that we will score enough runs to give our bowlers a platform. If we do that, we will win.

That's where we need to get to before Australia next year. We must create good habits. That starts in Hamilton.