Cricket: Fleming puts early heat on Trescothick in captaincy duel

8.25am - By MARK GEENTY

LONDON - New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming today raised doubts about his new opposite number Marcus Trescothick as the tourists won the opening stanza before a ball was bowled in the first cricket test.

New Zealand were dealt a test eve bonus when Michael Vaughan was ruled out with a knee injury suffered at training on Monday, handing Trescothick his first test as captain ahead of former skippers Nasser Hussain and Mark Butcher.

Trescothick, 28, is not renowned for his tactical nous and his appointment was greeted with scepticism by the English press, even though he has a 100 per cent captaincy record from two one-day internationals.

In contrast, Fleming will lead New Zealand for the 59th time tonight (9.30pm NZT) in a test pitting world cricket's current most experienced captain with 20 wins, against the greenest.

"If you lose your captain it's got to be a disadvantage because the team's gone well under Michael, they've developed patterns and when you change those patterns you sometimes get a disjointed effect," Fleming told a packed media conference at Lord's.

"We're not going to read too much into it because Trescothick has been part of the side for some time. What we're interested in is how it'll effect his batting.

"We're noting with interest the amount of pressure on certain individuals from the media."

Trescothick, the hard-hitting opener who averages 41.24 from 47 tests, said he expected to be targeted by the New Zealanders in what should be a one-off with Vaughan tipped to return for the second test.

"Stephen is renowned as probably the best captain in the world at the moment," he said, adding Vaughan's absence left a "major hole" in their side.

"But it's not going to bother me what he particularly does. I've got to try and focus on the job I've got to do for England."

Fleming though steered away suggestions of a head to head confrontation as the English press honed in on a potential repeat of Fleming's shock outburst at South Africa's Graeme Smith at Eden Park in March.

"No I won't. It certainly won't be that way," Fleming said.

"We saw an emotion there that we might be able to tap into which we did at times, but he responded very well."

Both sides had their final test shakedown under a third straight day of barmy English spring weather, which had baked the Lord's pitch to the point where the covers were on to keep the sun off.

Fleming predicted an excellent test batting surface on which the side bowling first will be praying for early cloud cover to offer some swing for the pacemen.

New Zealand are at full strength except their still recovering fast bowler Shane Bond, whose absence Fleming noted as a key loss.

England will pin their hopes on their own speedster Stephen Harmison who demolished the West Indies and has reaped 50 wickets from 11 tests in the past year.

In the batting stakes, New Zealand have test centurions down to Daniel Vettori at No 9 and two quality allrounders Chris Cairns and Jacob Oram against England's entertainment machine Andrew Flintoff.

England will likely welcome Middlesex opener Andrew Strauss on his home ground as Vaughan's replacement.

Fleming was excited about his maiden test as a specialist opening batsman as he takes Michael Papps' place and Nathan Astle moves up to three.

"I've wanted to for some time. We haven't been that successful opening, so No 3's been coming in at 10 or 20 for one. By that time the opening bowlers are well and truly in their stride.

"You're in the front lines straight away, and if you're going to exert any pressure it'll be from ball one."

England are third on the current test rankings after their 3-0 win in the Caribbean while New Zealand are fifth, just two points adrift.

Day one is almost a sellout with a crowd of up to 30,000 expected, and fine weather predicted to continue into the weekend.

Teams:

England (from): Marcus Trescothick (captain), Andrew Strauss, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, Paul Collingwood, Ashley Giles, Simon Jones, James Anderson, Matthew Hoggard, Stephen Harmison.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Mark Richardson, Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Craig McMillan, Chris Cairns, Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa), Darrell Hair (Australia).

- NZPA