World Cup: Nasser Hussain on how England can topple co-hosts New Zealand

World Cup co-hosts New Zealand have recorded two wins from two in the World Cup to solidify their status as one of the favourites, so how can England derail them on Friday? Nasser Hussain shares his thoughts…

Knock off Brendon McCullum

It could be vital for England’s chances to get McCullum early as he wants to lead from the front, be that real dynamic leader and the guy New Zealand can feed off. Plus, with England’s captain, Eoin Morgan, struggling a little bit, it is even more important to try and get on top of him. How do you do that? Well, as McCullum likes to stay leg side of the ball and throw his hands at anything outside off stump – he doesn’t move back and across like a traditional English player would – you probably want to get the ball nipping back so you can try and get him lbw or bowled. If Jimmy Anderson can set McCullum up with an out-swinger or two and then bring one back that might catch him out, though Steven Finn is also capable of doing that job as we saw a few years ago against South Africa at Lord’s. If you are short and wide to McCullum, however, there will be carnage and on a relatively small ground if he gets going he can very quickly take the game away from you.

Keep faith with the same batsmen that faced Australia…

If England believed that team was the right one on Saturday, then it should be the right one now because any more tinkering will send out mixed messages.

There was a bit of panic for England ahead of the Australia game. There is absolutely no way, unless there is an injury, you would meddle with your top six before an Ashes Test, so why do it before a World Cup? Everything should have been set in stone ahead of the tournament and while there may have been good reasons for dropping Ravi Bopara, bringing in Gary Ballance and moving James Taylor down the order – Ballance is an excellent Test-match No 3 and could flourish there in ODIs, while Taylor, with his unorthodox shots, could end up as an excellent No 5 or 6 – the timing of the decsions was wrong.

That said, they cannot compound the issue by making further changes against New Zealand, unless the conditions are drastically different to the ones they faced at the MCG. If England believed that team was the right one on Saturday, then it should be the right one now because any more tinkering will send out mixed messages. Consistency is fundamental, just look at the New Zealand side, which, perhaps with the exceptions of Grant Elliott and Adam Milne, is the team you would have picked about 12 months ago.

And probably the same bowlers, too

I think England should keep the four big lads – Anderson, Finn, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad – in the team as well, on the proviso that if they truly believe the ball will spin that they pick the front-line spinner, James Tredwell. What is the point in him going on this trip if he doesn’t get a gig on a turning pitch?

If that is the case, you could make a case for Woakes and Finn’s places being at risk and while Finn has bowled well against New Zealand in the past, he could miss out because Woakes is England’s death bowler and I don’t see Finn, a back-of-a-length bowler, or Anderson doing that job as effectively. That said, while drop-in pitches are usually slow and low, with the cross breezes in New Zealand there can be a bit of seam and swing early on, as we saw when the Black Caps played Scotland. I am not privy to conditions in Wellington but I would edge towards England keeping faith with the same guys that faced Australia.

Don’t overdo your bowling plans

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England focus a bit too much on strategy - loads of meetings, discussions on shapes of grounds. I understand why they do that and why they don’t just bowl yorker after yorker – a delivery that can get clattered if it is slightly wrong – at the end of an innings, but look at the way Mitchell Starc and Lasith Malinga always have a yorker up their sleeve. I think that is your starting point in international cricket and then you vary things if that gets hit, but it’s as if England don’t trust themselves to execute that delivery and instead revert to short stuff immedialely.

Variation is key but that doesn’t just mean various ways of bowling short. There has to be stuff angling into feet, slower balls, cutters, bluffing and double-bluffing the batsmen etc and more importantly, a gut feel on what the right thing to do is and the ability to throw in plan B if plan A isn’t working.

Take the game extremely seriously

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England can’t just rely on beating the Associate nations in their group as it is then extremely likely they will face a gun side, a South Africa or an India, in the quarter-finals, which isn’t ideal. There is also the chance that they slip up against one of the lesser lights and risk not getting out of the group at all, so every game in this group stage is vital.

If England play with a bit of flair and passion and think on their feet, not just with the ball but also with knowing what tempo to bat at in various stages of their innings, and don’t just think: ‘It will be okay, we’ve got Scotland up next’ they have a real chance.

New Zealand are a very strong team, especially at home, but they have not yet been tested by proper, pitch-up bowling and if England can get a couple of early wickets and test the middle-order, you never know what might happen. If they field better, too – you can’t be dropping McCullum on nought like you dropped Aaron Finch – this game will be very interesting. The World Cup starts here for England.

Watch England's World Cup clash with New Zealand, live on Sky Sports World Cup from 12.30am on Friday.