Nasser Hussain believes that the key to England's success in the three-Test series that starts at Christchurch on Wednesday will be how quickly his side finds its feet. "We are slightly undercooked," he said today. "And we're still a little bit short of experience. These three games will be determined by how all of us – including the young lads – adapt to New Zealand conditions. But I don't think anyone really knows what this pitch is going to do." The first Test will be played on a drop-in wicket, and although it is expected to provide a little more help to the seamers than the drop-in used for the Christchurch Test against Pakistan last year – when 1243 runs were scored for the loss of only 19 wickets – Hussain says it will be an unknown quantity. "It's a very new experience for us. It will be important to get down there in the next couple of days and have a good look at it. In England - and round the world now - history tends to suggest what will happen in the future. But with a brand-new drop-in wicket you do your gardening and try and get it right.

"But it's exactly the same for both teams. The pitch never worries me. In fact I get quite excited about wickets that do a bit because it's never dull cricket. I prefer to play on a variety of wickets. And at the moment this might do anything."

Hussain said he was unconcerned about the fact that England haven't won the first Test of an overseas series since the Christchurch game of 1991-92, when Phil Tufnell took 7 for 47 on a dramatic final afternoon. "You go into a Test match worrying about the present, not history or the future," he said. "That first session will be crucial. It will determine the course of the game."

He felt that the first session of a Test in New Zealand was even more crucial than it was in England. "In England the Duke ball stays hard throughout the game, so you can go into a Test match with four seamers and know that after 80 overs the ball's still rock-hard and new. But here the Kookaburra ball has a small seam, and therefore the first 25 overs are crucial."

But Hussain has every faith in his team. "The most pleasing thing for me has been the young lads that have come in. We used to say that the last young lad to come in and get a hundred on debut was Thorpe. Now you look at the likes of Trescothick, Vaughan, Hoggard, even Dawson in India, who took a four-for in his first game against that batting line-up. And Shah in the one-dayers came straight in and replaced Vaughan. That's good for English cricket."

He was also quick to quash the idea that England's lack of experience in the seam-bowling department would count against them. "We had an inexperienced seam attack in India, and those lads were the ones to step up and were our best bowlers. Flintoff stepped up and said `I'm your best bowler, skipper'."

Hussain felt that England now had a better environment for nurturing the younger players than they used to. "I think they feel they've got a long run at things. If they're left out, they're not left out permanently – it's just a balance-of-the-side thing."

Asked whether more bad weather would persuade him to leave out Ashley Giles, Hussain replied, "I wouldn't say so. The last time we played in New Zealand, a spinner usually came into the game. There's always a cross-breeze here, and you always need a spinner in your attack. If you're only going to get three days' cricket, then you'd leave your spinner out. But as we stand at the moment, we need a spinner in the Test side."

Now all Hussain has to do is exorcise the memories of 1999, his first series in charge, when New Zealand came from behind to beat England 2-1. "We should have won that series," he said with a hint of remorse. "We should have done things a little bit better at The Oval, although that may have been to do with my inexperience. But we've moved on from there."

The next few weeks will reveal just how far.

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

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