Alastair Cook admits England know nothing about legspinner Fawad Ahmed, who is looming as a likely inclusion in Australia's Ashes squad.

It's unusual for a news bulletin to elicit guffaws from a carful of blokes.

Surely belief is high right now for our team - but where it will get tested, and where it has failed them in the past, is in the big game.

Nestled within Loughborough University in Britain's East Midlands lies a building of shimmering steel, plate glass windows and a roof which filters in natural light - the National Cricket Performance Centre.

Crunching the numbers ahead of New Zealand's opening Champions Trophy match against Sri Lanka, produces one compelling statistic which trumps all.

New Zealand's paramount match at the Champions Trophy comes on Wednesday night against Australia.

Browse through the teams at the Champions Trophy and it's understandable why New Zealand want to give Daniel Vettori the maximum available time to prove his fitness.

Shikhar Dhawan smashed 114 off 94 balls as India overcame a valiant South Africa by 26 runs in the opening match of the Champions Trophy in Cardiff yesterday.

Fitness and fielding have emerged as two important areas giving New Zealand a point of difference at cricket's Champions Trophy.

New Zealand's cricketers celebrated their one-day series over England by spraying champagne at one another like Formula One drivers, but the team need a pitstop to assess their one-day form before the Champions Trophy.

As the cricketing world's focus turns to the Champions Trophy in England and Wales, Andrew Alderson picks a Curiosity XI worth setting the alarm for

Martin Guptill's 189 not out, the highest score by a New Zealander in one-day internationals, led the visitors to 359 for three in the second match of the series.

When it comes to age at cricket's Champions Trophy this month, New Zealand is the Dad's Army.

Martin Guptill scored 189 not out, his second century in 48 hours, as the Black Caps eased to an 86-run win, taking the three-match series over England.

New Zealand might have been swept 2-0 by England in the away test series but looking at early Ashes intelligence data, Australia can expect much the same.

NZ needs cricketing respect and they won't gain that on a diet of short form success alone, writes Mark Richardson.

Test cricket continues to serve up a cocktail of technical and psychological torment to New Zealand's batsmen, regardless of the team's belief they are preparing meticulously.

The great old game of cricket is doing itself a massive disservice by allowing the bowlers with the bent arms to lead a new epidemic of wrong - and New Zealand is not exempt.

It seemed appropriate Martin Guptill should bring up his third ODI century, and the first by a New Zealander at Lord’s, with a pull shot.

Martin Guptill produced the first ODI century by a New Zealander at Lord's to give the visitors a five-wicket win in the first match of three against England.

New Zealand can thank former Australian wicketkeeper/batsman Adam Gilchrist for the acquisition of Luke Ronchi.

Ian Butler could play cricket in one of two destinations tomorrow.

New Zealand's batting is sometimes like watching the opening credits to the cartoon Danger Mouse. A fuse is lit on a big black bomb which, at some point, you know is going to explode.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of apathy towards the New Zealand cricketers are always exaggerated.

If you compiled a New Zealand XI of players-who-never-took-themselves-too-seriously, Tony Blain would surely be skipper.

All week I've been hearing about the positives but life, in my book, does not work that way. You can be as good as you like for 90 per cent of your life but if you make one big stuff-up, it will define you.