Whatever Ben Hollioake lacks – and some would say two yards of pace – it certainly isn't confidence. It's no longer the sort of confidence that led Mike Atherton to mutter about Surrey Showboats, but something more understated, less abrasive. Talking to the press on the eve of England's must-win match at Napier, Hollioake puts his tanned neck on the line. "A lot of people will laugh but we think we're going to win 3-2." No-one laughs. He's deadly serious. He's serious about the "we" too: Hollioake expects to play tomorrow after recovering from the tendonitis in his left knee that had kept him out of the side after the fourth one-dayer in India. "I'll be very excited if selected. I suspect I might be." Then, just in case we think he's getting too big for his size 12s: "At the same time, I'm not expecting to play."

There's something disarming about Hollioake – he's both charmingly boyish and boyishly charming. A nation warmed to him during that sparkling 63 on his one-day debut against Glenn McGrath at Lord's in 1997. And sitting here in his shades outside the team hotel on Hawke Bay, he exudes an ingenuousness that has been coached out of most sportsmen. "It's been a very annoying tour for me because I felt after the summer I was just starting to cement my place."

Cementing might be a bit strong, but Hollioake's glass is usually half-full. Asked whether he'll make England's World Cup squad, he replies: "I always back myself. I think that I will. My performances last summer merited my place in the squad, and they probably merited my place at the beginning of the India trip. But I'd like to have played a lot more than I have done."

In fact, since that raucous 48-ball debut, when Ian Healy famously told him to "get back to the nets, idiot", Hollioake has played just 20 matches in four and a half years, scoring 309 runs at a touch over 20, and taking eight wickets at more than 66. And yet – characteristically, perhaps – he feels that he's getting better with age.

"Last year I began to make strides, definitely in all areas of one-day cricket, and with the bat in Championship cricket." A week ago he signed a new one-year contract with Surrey, and his ambitions are clear. "If I can become the most important member in a team like Surrey, then I can pretty much do it anywhere." Arrogant? Maybe, just a little. Realistic? Very much so.

He's loyal too. Warwickshire came very close to signing him. "But it's hard to leave a club that gave me the opportunity in the first place. They've promised me a lot more opportunity, and I think they deserve to have me for another year."

Hollioake is more aware than most about the fickle nature of the media. "A month ago everyone was saying how brilliant New Zealand are, two weeks ago they weren't good at all, and now they're brilliant again. It's the same with us. After India everyone was saying we were on the up and up, and now after two games we've been written off a little bit. I'm sure if we can turn it round – which I'm positive we can – that it'll be a different story again."

Positive. Ben Hollioake knows no other way.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com. You can read his reports here throughout the tour.

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