Moores faces toughest Test

England leave for Christchurch today for the one-day cricket — at 20 and 50 overs — that precedes the first of two three-Test series against the same opponents, away and at home.

By the time England face New Zealand for the sixth successive Test at Trent Bridge in early June, they will need to have made a huge improvement if serious questions are not to be asked of Moores and captain Michael Vaughan.

Only two wins in eight Test series since the Ashes of 2005 mean Moores is facing a situation similar to that which Fletcher encountered before England's huge improvement between 2000 and the Ashes pinnacle.

While choosing his words carefully, the coach knows it is time to deliver.

'I never saw myself having a honeymoon period as such because you are always under pressure when you are working with England,' said Moores ahead of today's departure.

'There is a lot of big cricket coming up and we still have a lot of work to do, but it is clear we need to end the state of flux around the Test side and settle it down quickly.

'You work as hard as you can with the group of players at your disposal and then you are judged accordingly at the end of whatever time you are given in the role.

'I will not be coaching any differently to how I have always done and I am very much enjoying this job.

'To me, the aim is to try to build something sustainable and the next step is to win in New Zealand.'

The biggest task facing Moores is surely to get the best out of a talented group of players who are not playing to their full potential.

Whether there is complacency in the ranks, a lack of ruthlessness that was identified by Nasser Hussain in these pages or simply a period of transition created by an excess of injuries, fifth place in the ICC world rankings is not good enough.

Particularly as 2005 was supposed to be the launch pad to a period of ascendancy.

At least England could not have asked for better opponents as they attempt to make up lost ground.

While New Zealand remain a highly competent one-day team, they are not nearly as strong as they were in Test cricket and have been starved of the longer game apart from a predictably one-sided two-match series against Bangladesh.

The Kiwis entertain England for the first time in six years with question marks over the availability of their one world-class bowler Shane Bond and with Stephen Fleming, arguably the best international captain of the past 20 years, now reluctantly forced back into the ranks at Test level having given the one-day captaincy to Daniel Vettori.

It remains to be seen whether Fleming will still be content to be a foot soldier by the time he returns to his adopted Trent Bridge home in June.

Moores thinks it unfair to accuse England's batsmen of merely doing enough to stay in the side rather than pushing on to match-winning hundreds.

But he is happy to see the return of Andrew Strauss, who will almost certainly open with Alastair Cook in the Tests, with Vaughan dropping down to his preferred three.

'We need to get big scores if we are to be successful,' said Moores. 'Andrew is a leader, a real competitor and he just needed time to sort out his game.'

There was also sympathy for Matt Prior, the wicket-keeper batsman Moores knows so well, who was dropped on the back of a very poor performance in the final Test against Sri Lanka in Galle.

'The bottom line is we want his keeping to get better and hopefully he can work on things away from the spotlight and come back stronger,' said Moores.

For now, England will try to build on one-day successes against India and Sri Lanka before worrying about Test cricket.

But it is in the longer game that this tour will be judged. England cannot allow themselves to fail.