Bond quick to catch England's attention

New Zealand tour: New fast bowler focuses tourists' minds on the early exchanges as World Cup strategies emerge

England's mood changed as soon as the players stepped on to the tarmac at Auckland Airport. They stopped short of bending down and kissing it but have done little else since to conceal their glee at being in New Zealand.

This may last, at least until they meet the home side in the first one-day match of five in the National Bank Series in Christchurch on Wednesday. The Black Caps, as they are called these days to make them jazzier and to meet commercial imperatives, have clear heads and slick brains beneath the sponsored gear which gives them their sobriquet. While they have been well beaten in the finals of the VB triangular series in Australia their triumph was in progressing so far, beating the host nation three times and eliminating them in doing so. New Zealand, in the parlance, are contenders.

They also possess the most threatening of all cricketing weapons, a true fast bowler. Shane Bond is the new kid on the block who comes out of it with alarming speed. He was the leading wicket-taker in the Australian tournament and gives the hurry-up to the most composed of openers, as Nick Knight and Marcus Trescothick will discover.

Bond's involvement will add not only to the excitement that is always generated by sheer pace but also to the significance of the first 15 overs in the one-day game. Suddenly, with the 2003 World Cup in South Africa in mind, they have assumed a new pertinence. All but two fielders in the circle, let's blast away to uncharted territory.

England's difficulty, as they discovered on the Indian leg of this tour and as was confirmed on Friday night by a Northern Districts slogger called Simon Doull, is containment. Pinch-hitting is one thing, throttling the life out of you is another. Knight conceded yesterday that the side must work out methods of restriction while advancing their own attacking cause in the initial period. "They can score so heavily that games can be taken away," he said.

How true and how attractive for the limited-overs game. Who cares about bowlers? Except that they now have one legal bouncer up their sleeve per over. That one regulation change – and watch Bond take advantage – could reduce scoring on good pitches by 20 runs an innings. Bowlers, who always feel hard done-by, apparently accepted it on the nod at their recent annual meeting. Of course, it may be overturned by the International Cricket Council assembly of chief executives who meet in Christchurch this week.

This series will be hard and attractive. England have their perpetual worry of being under-prepared and under-focused for the opening tie. They are so obsessed with this notion now that there is a real danger they will have somehow talked themselves into a state in which they can barely hold a bat.

There is nothing outrageously inappropriate about the squad's relief to have left India after their frenetic programme. New Zealand was always bound to be closer in spirit. This also works the other way, however. A few years back, the Indian batsman, Sanjay Manjrekar, fell ill with food poisoning on a tour of England and blamed it on the local diet, or his being unaccustomed to it. Not Delhi belly so much as Lancashire hot bot.

England are well aware that they must avoid allowing familiarity to breed contempt for the matter in hand. They are far from being a complete one-day team but their progress was palpable in gaining a 3-3 draw with India after being 3-1 down. Partly by chance, partly by design, which is the way the best teams are assembled, England may have stumbled on a way to change the balance of their team. It stems from an unusual area: play the opening batsman, Trescothick, as wicketkeeper. The Somerset man has kept wicket in three matches on this tour, the third on Friday night against Northern Districts when he took three catches.

Trescothick is passable behind the stumps, the apprentice incumbent James Foster bats at number nine. "I'm getting a bit of a bug for being behind the stumps. I don't know about whether there's any thinking about doing it more permanently with James Foster in the position but I enjoy it." Easy to infer the conclusion.

However, Foster has hands that move like a Formula One racing car in the crucial area of picking up the ball for potential run outs and the suspicion is that Trescothick's may be on a par with a tractor. This advantage is slight but crucial. It would be better for England in the long term to turn Foster into a number seven batsman than to try to turn Trescothick into a wicketkeeper-batsman.

There is also the conundrum of what to do with the seam bowling. On normal Kiwi pitches, there is a case for playing all three main seamers, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough and Matthew Hoggard. But the presence of two seam bowling all-rounders, Craig White and Andrew Flintoff, makes it unlikely and probably tough on Hoggard.

Sooner or later, the selectors must have another look at Owais Shah in the middle order if they are serious about the World Cup. Michael Vaughan's off-spin in the final match against India – though not his uncharacteristically poor catching – advanced his case for further examination but the feeling grows that both he and Paul Collingwood must make a batting contribution soon.

If New Zealand begin as favourites they may also be stale and disappointed after their efforts in Australia. The only significant change they are likely to contemplate also affects the wicketkeeper. With Adam Parore out of form with the bat lower down and the upper order also struggling, they are scouring the provinces for a keeper who can open the batting.

England, if not adversely affected by their reversal to Northern Districts, now known as the Knights, on Friday night, should have the weapons to make it a close series. There has never been much between the countries in the one-day field, England having won 23 and New Zealand 20. The tourists happen to lead 5-1 at Christchurch, the most English of all New Zealand cities, which suggests that familiarity does not breed contempt. It may or may not explain why they changed the name from Lancaster Park to a series of appellations chosen by sponsors. Commercial imperatives apply in New Zealand quite as much as in the UK.

England and New Zealand have not met in a one-day match for five years, which is a limited overs generation. Then, they drew 2-2 with one tied and a similar result cannot be entirely ruled out, which this time might be good enough for some tarmac kissing.