Everything’s going to be all white

After the early spring razzmatazz of the Indian Premier League tournament, it is fitting that tomorrow the old staple of Test Match cricket returns to Lords, the spiritual home of the game.

England’s cricketers begin their summer with a three match series against Daniel Vettori’s New Zealand. The home side are expected to win easily and use the series as a stepping stone towards the more taxing challenge of South Africa’s visit later in the year.

And with an Ashes summer just one year away, world champions Australia are never far from anybody’s thoughts

Head coach Peter Moores recently celebrated his 1 year anniversary of taking up the England post and, as Angus Fraser writes in the Independent, the former Sussex man wants his side to “impose themselves on New Zealand as they attempt to reclaim their position as the second best Test team in the world” with a “vibrant and aggressive” approach to their cricket.

As for the team itself, England are unchanged from the side that won back to back tests to secure a 2-1 series victory over the Black Caps in March. The only minor tweak comes as Andrew Strauss reverts to his familiar role at the top of the order while out of form skipper Michael Vaughan takes up the No3 position.

The series is a particularly poignant one for Strauss. Four years ago against the same opposition, he scored a hundred on test debut and went on to establish himself as a key member of the 2005 Ashes winning England team.

However, a severe loss of form in 2007 resulted in him losing his place in the side. He was recalled against New Zealand last winter and the results were unimpressive until he hit a battling, career best 177 in the final Test.

Earlier this week, Strauss, who was once unfortunately labeled the “David Cameron of cricket”, told the Guardian’s Donald McRae that his time in the international wilderness made him shudder with thoughts of the “real world” and life beyond the boundary rope. Perhaps a couple more three figure scores this summer will cement his position in the sporting Bullingdon Club that is Test Match cricket. 

It may not warm Strauss’ cockles to learn that his opening partner Alastair Cook spoke this week of how he will miss opening the innings with Vaughan.

“I admit that I will miss batting with Michael Vaughan - and particularly the lordly way that he caresses the ball through the covers,” Cook gushed in his column for the Daily Telegraph.

Beyond the bizarre love triangle at the top of the order, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood give England’s engine room a familiar look.

“I’ve had a pretty good 12 months but I want to convert more 50s into really big 100s,” Bell told the BBC. Indeed, for a player of his undeniably quality, his conversion rate of seven centuries from 25 fifties at Test level is a major bugbear for England supporters. Scores of 41, 62, 43 and 48 for Warwickshire this year will lead many to believe that Bell’s bold words will remain unfulfilled.

Tim Ambrose holds on to the wicketkeeping gloves following a promising start to his test career last winter, even though national selector Geoff Miller admitted to the BBC that Chris Read, the generally accepted best gloveman in the country who is held back by appearing to bat with a tooth pick when ever he pulls on an England shirt, may still have a future at international level.

The bowling attack will be led by the affable, shaggy haired Ryan Sidebottom. Many an eyebrow was raised when the journeyman seamer won an England recall against the West Indies last summer, but twelve Test matches and 53 wickets later he has become England’s spearhead.

In Tuesday’s Guardian, Paul Weaver wrote warmly of how Sidebottom is a fine example to those cricketers who feel they are perpetually lumbering along the county treadmill.

Stuart Broad retains his place in the seam attack as a reward for the steady progress that is allowing him to realise his boundless potential.

Steady progress has rarely been associated with Broad’s fellow quick, James Anderson. Jekyll and Hyde performances have dogged the stop-start international career of arguably England’s most gifted bowler.

“I feel I have the talent to be in the top ten in the world in both forms of the game. I have been around the side for five years now, so it is about time I started doing it,” Anderson bullishly told Richard Hobson of the Times. Few who witnessed his 5-73 haul against New Zealand in Wellington two months ago would argue with this statement. But, like Bell, his prodigious talent must now be turned into hard statistics on a regular basis.

Cult-hero Monty Panesar will occupy the final spot in the team with his entertaining combination of spin wizardry and music hall fielding.

After a difficult eighteen months, England seem to have a settled side in place, which is no bad thing considering the tough assignments that lie ahead. With the talismanic Andrew Flintoff waiting in the wings for the South Africa series, and the likes of Ravi Bopara giving the selectors welcome headaches, this just could be a summer to remember. A summer when the feelgood factor might return to English cricket.

In 2004, England beat New Zealand at Lords to begin an eight match winning streak. A little over a year later, they were lifting the ashes. Who says lightning can’t strike twice?