Race is on for Alastair Cook to prove England can be front runners

England need to tackle this problem quickly and a glance at their schedule for 2013 is enough to focus the mind. Not only are Cook’s team strong favourites to beat New Zealand at home, they also have the talent to prevail in the back-to-back Ashes contests that follow. In June, there is the Champions Trophy on home soil, which represents England’s best chance for some time to take an ICC global title.

It is important, then, to embrace the high expectations. Jonathan Trott said in these pages that England’s record in recent years would be envied by the players who were in the struggling sides of the 1990s and he is right.

Yet this argument would not be sufficient explanation should England fail to account for New Zealand between now and May 28.

“It could be a good thing that the series in New Zealand in March didn’t go our way,” said Trott. “We had the high of India and then we came down in New Zealand. But you draw in New Zealand and it’s seen as a failure.

“People look at the world rankings and see England at No2 and New Zealand at No7 and think that we should always win. New Zealand are better than their ranking would suggest, though, and in that series they played better than people expected. We didn’t play well and they did — and we let them play well.We’ve got to be more consistent in everything we do. When we’re batting, we need to be more relentless and it’s the same with bowling. We pride ourselves on getting big runs in the first innings and we didn’t have as much impact as we would have liked.

“The summer is broken into three segments — New Zealand, Champions Trophy and Australia — and that’s nice. Because there’s so much cricket, it’s easy to plan for it all at once but the key is to try to break it down.”

England have been extremely powerful at home in recent summers. Before they were beaten by South Africa, they had not lost a Test series here since the Proteas also triumphed in 2008 to bring to an end Michael Vaughan’s stint as captain. They need to reassert themselves, especially without the injured Kevin Pietersen, but this two-match Investec series is significant for New Zealand, too.

The battles with England two months ago suggested the Black Caps have the ability to be a force in the longer game, even though the Indian Premier League has disrupted their plans in recent years.

Captain Brendon McCullum and batsman Ross Taylor left their IPL franchises early to join this tour. Taylor fell out with the current regime after he was sacked as captain last year but insists the damage is now close to being repaired.

“England will have a point to prove and want to get their summer off to a good start,” said New Zealand seam bowler Tim Southee.

“But if we can get the ball swinging in favourable conditions, hopefully we can use it to our advantage.

“It’s certainly a lot nicer to be able to look at the England team sheet and not see Kevin Pietersen’s name on it.”

First Test: Today-Monday, Lord’s

Second Test: May 24-28, Headingley