It's a cold, damp morning in the mountainous holiday resort of Queenstown, but Mark Ramprakash is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Perhaps it's because his Indian wife Vandana is expecting a second little Ramps "in 12 hours". Or perhaps he's just more laid-back these days. He looks you in the eye, smiles, and reflects on a new-found sense of wellbeing. "Since the Ashes series, I've been very happy with the way I've approached the game," he says. "I've been going for my shots, and I've felt relaxed at the crease. If I keep that going, the scores will come." It was only a year and a half ago that Ramprakash's world was falling apart. Asked to open against Curtly and Courtney, he made 18, 0, 0 and 2 – and returned to square one with a bump. He was left out of the England side that won in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and decided to cross the Thames from Middlesex to Surrey in search of a new challenge. His luck turned. Michael Vaughan got injured and Ramprakash suddenly found himself thrust into the furnace of an Ashes battle. His contributions were limited at first to a string of pretty 14s and 40s, which was very Ramprakash. Then, at The Oval, it sort of clicked and he made a near-flawless 133, whooping with delight midway through a dreamy cover-drive on the up off Glenn McGrath and hugging Darren Gough almost intimately when he reached three figures – gestures the old, uptight Ramps wouldn't have recognised.

He had made a century before – a dazzling 154 at Bridgetown in 1997-98 – but this time the confidence stayed with him. "I was very pleased with the way I approached my batting in India and the way I was hitting the ball. I felt very confident." Not only that, but Ramprakash was batting with a smile on his face. "I was pleased with the partnership at Bangalore where Vaughany and I batted together. I really enjoyed that."

He may be more at ease with himself, but the little-boy earnestness is still there. It's been drizzling all morning and the training session has had to be cancelled. "We've only got two warm-up games and that has to be a concern," says Ramprakash, brow furrowed. "If we don't get much play in these two games then that leaves the England camp with a few headaches, because there may be certain players who come into the Test series without much cricket under their belts." And the capacity for self-criticism hasn't gone either. "I'm well aware that as a batsman in the top five or six, it's very important for the team to make starts count. Unfortunately in India I didn't really go on to a big score."

Ramprakash is also driven by the desire to erase what he calls the "bitter memory" of losing at home to New Zealand in 1999. "I think all the players know we're in for a very stern test. New Zealand have got a nucleus of players that have played a lot of Test cricket. They've picked some youngsters and every time a youngster has come in he's done very well, like Andre Adams and Shane Bond. We're going to have to play very well to beat them."

But with the Test series still two weeks away, Ramprakash admits that some of his team-mates could do with a bit of R&R. "The players who have been going round India are looking to chill out here, take a break and switch off mentally. But the six of us who have come over for the Test series [Usman Afzaal, Mark Butcher, Richard Dawson, Warren Hegg and James Ormond are the other five], we're very much wanting to play and quite enthusiastic to get out there."

And after two thorough net sessions in Dunedin, he knows what to expect. "The pitches do seem to be slightly different from last time I was here [in 1991-92]. They're not slow and low like ones we've heard about in the past. There were good cricket wickets in the one-day series." Then, almost as an afterthought: "There'll be some good attacking cricket played." On recent form, Ramprakash could be leading the way.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd