In the Dominion Post, Jeremy Coney runs his eye over the current New Zealand team - he calls them the Bleak Caps - and finds plenty of reasons for concern.

In an ideal world, Jamie How and Ross Taylor would be two of our young stars poised for development. An England tour is an ideal place for them to progress. However, compared to their top- order teammates, they are senior statesmen. And Taylor himself was dropped as recently as the Bangladesh series. Is this the way to develop long-term players?

Despite circumstances, the squad looks unbalanced. Five seam bowlers (an aging population of 29-33) and Jacob Oram. It does appear heavily weighted – six into four (test requirements) when the batting looks so inexperienced and unknown is a luxury. The top five batsmen register 19 tests between them. Similar batting positions for the Bangladesh side that played New Zealand recently held 115 tests and their current opposition 221. All England whiff crumbly collapso.