Flower Eager for England to Start Well

England will bid to start the test series with New Zealand, by doing something they haven't acheived since 2004, and that is win their opening test match on tour against one of the top 6 test playing nations....

Although England have beaten Bangladesh on tour in the opening test match, it is against the more established test playing nations, where they have struggled on tour in the opening test match.

For instance, before Christmas, all attention was on England superbly winning 2-1 in India, but not many remember the opening test match surrender before they came back fantastically in the remaining test matches.

It is something which has bothered coach Andy Flower, now back with the England team just for the longer format

"It's very important. I remember that when I first got involved with the England side that was an identifiable area of weakness and we consciously did something about it." Flower said on Monday.

"That is an area we need to focus on. We want to start well, we want to kick the opposition over, and if this game sharpens us up so that we can do that in Dunedin then it's been an excellent week for us." He concluded.

Nick Compton is expected to remain as Alastair Cook's partner at the top of the order, meaning Joe Root will bat at number six in the opening test match in Dunedin.

And Flower is certainly a fan on how the Somerset batsman has taken to test cricket, "In his first series I thought he did really well, put on some good partnerships with Cook and saw off the threat of the new ball quite consistently. He looks like a very organised cricketer who knows his own game."