Fleming passed fit for Lord's

New Zealand's captain, Stephen Fleming, has been passed fit for the first Test against England at Lord's, after overcoming a groin niggle, and is set to open the batting alongside Mark Richardson on Thursday.

New Zealand have capitalised on the confusion in the England camp following Michael Vaughan's knee injury, and have named their starting XI a full 24 hours in advance of the match. The specialist opener, Michael Papps, is the unfortunate batsman to miss out, despite his century in New Zealand's recent defeat against Kent.

Although he regularly faces the new ball in one-day internationals, Fleming is more used to batting at No. 3 in Tests - in fact he has opened the batting just once in his previous 82 matches. But once Nathan Astle had proved his form and fitness after his recent knee injury, he was always going to be a shoo-in for his first match since October.

On a more disappointing note for New Zealand, they will be without Shane Bond, who had been sidelined for almost all of 2003 after suffering a stress fracture in his back. "Shane is struggling with his fitness," said New Zealand's coach, John Bracewell, who always imagined Bond's inclusion at Lord's would be a long shot. "We are staying with our original plan; he's still on target to be right for the second Test."

The seam bowler, Kyle Mills, is the remaining member of New Zealand's Test squad to miss out on selection.

New Zealand 1 Mark Richardson, 2 Stephen Fleming (capt), 3 Nathan Astle, 4 Craig McMillan, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Chris Cairns, 8 Brendon McCullum (wk), 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Daryl Tuffey, 11 Chris Martin.