Tough Test for Trescothick

Cricket/England v New Zealand first Test : Marcus Trescothick comes up against the most experienced current captain in Test …

Cricket/England v New Zealand first Test: Marcus Trescothick comes up against the most experienced current captain in Test cricket today when he leads out England at Lord's.

Trescothick, who deputises for knee-injury victim Michael Vaughan, will face a tough baptism against Stephen Fleming, who will be in charge of New Zealand for the 59th time.

Only Australian Allan Border and Clive Lloyd, of the West Indies, have been captains on more occasions at the highest level.

When confronted with Graeme Smith, South Africa's fledgling skipper, during this past winter, Fleming engaged in a bout of sledging with his opposite number, which, while messy, asserted the Kiwi's authority.

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"Doing it for one game, you might get a little bit nervous in certain situations and people get pinpointed now and again whether it is the captain, opening bowler or batsman," Trescothick said. "Certain people within games are definitely targeted. He is probably the best captain in the world at the moment but what he does is not particularly going to bother me."

Trescothick has led England on two previous occasions: in the autumn of 2001 when Nasser Hussain missed a one-day win over Zimbabwe in Bulawayo and last summer against South Africa at The Oval after Vaughan pulled out with a back injury on the morning of the NatWest Series contest.

ENGLAND (from): ME Trescothick (capt), AJ Strauss, MA Butcher, PD Collingwood, N Hussain, GP Thorpe, A Flintoff, GO Jones (wicketkeeper), AF Giles, SP Jones, SJ Harmison, MJ Hoggard, JM Anderson.

NEW ZEALAND: SP Fleming (capt), MH Richardson, NJ Astle, SB Styris, CD McMillan, BB McCullum (wicketkeeper), CL Cairns, JDP Oram, DL Vettori, DR Tuffey, CS Martin.