The leader of the pack

Chris Martin is one of those cricketers who is as famous for the part of his game he doesn't do well as he is for his main role. He has almost twice as many Test wickets (136) as runs (74) and has only reached double figures once. When Martin walks out to bat his team-mates start putting their whites on and the groundsman prepares to roll the pitch.

The honours boards at Lord's are where every player wants to get their name. Martin has every chance of inking in his position on the bowling list during the first Test, but while he will never figure among the batsmen, he has one ambition to achieve. "I think I once had my highest Test score at Lord's and I wouldn't mind that again," he said, "but hopefully double figures this time."

He's right, too; the 8 he made four years ago stood as his career best until he made 12 against Bangladesh in Dunedin in January. He is, however, realistic about his targets. "There are certain guys who can clear the boundary. I'm not one of those. I can live with that, and anything in front of square I'm quite happy with."

"I've got bruises all over me from the last game [when he faced 28 balls against England Lions] which has woken me up to the fact it's actually important I start getting bat in front of ball instead of the body," he says. "Relaying the message from what I see to my hands and my feet has always been a bit of a problem.

"I can smoke a golf ball; it's not moving. There's a slight mental block there. I know when I was younger I wasn't as handicapped as I am now."

Away from the humour that surrounds his batting, Martin is a serious performer. He will lead New Zealand's attack during the series against England, a role that has been thrust upon him after Shane Bond was waved off by New Zealand Cricket.

It took Martin a long time to establish himself in the New Zealand side. His breakthrough series came against South Africa, in 2004, when he took 11 wickets in Auckland. Now he is the man the team looks towards to set the tone in the field. It's no coincidence that when he was below his best in the recent series, in Wellington, so were New Zealand, allowing England to fight back. In Hamilton and Napier, he led the attack.

Martin knows he's in a senior role. "I suppose when I turn up at the ground and know in the tough situations in the game that I'm going to be given the ball, that's quite a nice feeling and one you should always have as a bowler," he said. "If Dan [Vettori] ever wants a wicket, or one of the [opposition's] key players comes to the crease, I'm generally given the ball, and it's a challenge for me to live up to those expectations. I won't pull it off every time but if you set your standards high, you have to keep climbing.

"I just think we are quite a nice, rounded attack. We all complement each other. Kyle [Mills] and I taking the new ball - one comes in and one goes away; it's quite a nice combination. I suppose the only thing I have to do is to set a certain standard among the seamers that filters through and makes a line in the sand that the guys can't go below. If I'm having an off day I can't really live up to that leader tag. That's the only pressure I feel, but there's also the personal pride."

Martin's figures in the March series were 11 wickets at 34.90 and he knows this is a tour where he needs to step up. "I didn't have any match-winning performances. I was steady without being too explosive, but heading over here with me as one of the more experienced players, those match-winning performances have to come from the mature guys, so that will definitely be something I'll have to do in this series for us to be competitive."

He isn't your typical, snarling fast bowler. Before the series in New Zealand, Martin responded to some comments from Andrew Strauss about the home attack minus Bond, but he admits he doesn't quite have the right personality to be chirping at the batsmen in the middle. "I haven't put myself out there that often," he said. "I find that the people who are good at that are quick-witted individuals and a bit off-the-cuff - to make a batsman feel a bit inferior. I haven't quite been that sort of player. I prefer to keep the emotions intact and hopefully the batsman finds that calmness makes him a little uncertain."

That doesn't mean, however, that there aren't comments and situations that get him a little riled. New Zealand always seem to be battling against the superiority complex of the England side. Martin says that neither team has the recent pedigree to be taking the high ground. "It does frustrate us at times. Both England and New Zealand haven't played consistent Test cricket for a while now," he said.

"From the English having such a high against the Australians it has come back down to a certain level where, perhaps, they can't just stroll out in front of the New Zealanders and expect to beat them. I know this New Zealand side isn't as experienced as many that have come over here, but they are still capable of upsetting England in their own backyard. I suppose that whole looking-down-on-the-little-brother thing is something that is inbred in an English cricketer, who doesn't look at the New Zealanders as being a particularly testing opponent. But over the years they have learnt they have to take us pretty seriously because there have been a couple of times that we have beaten them."

One of those New Zealand victories was in Hamilton a couple of months ago, when Martin and his bowling colleagues dismantled England for 110 on the final day. "One of our most memorable Tests at home," Martin calls it. He says that England tried to make their presence felt early on. and although the series ended in defeat, he hopes the players' experience in that match will stand them in good stead this time around.

"[A win against] any side that you come up against that sledges and makes you feel inferior is going to be a more satisfying victory, and we experienced that as a team playing in Hamilton, when I suppose we caught them on the hop. So to give the younger blokes a taste of that early on should get guys really keen to have it again.

"It's like any team. When you are doing well you can afford to play with your shoulders back and can have plenty of comments for the opposition. It's more of a test when you are playing badly and how you respond to that. Definitely some of the time with certain players in the English team - not all of them - they like to have a go and make you feel as though you aren't up to the standard for the international arena. It's just a case of reminding them that they need to be on top of their game as well."

England are being talked up as 3-0 winners of the series, which New Zealand won't mind, as their best cricket often comes when nothing is expected from them. It would be foolish to write off the visitors before a ball is bowled. England are unlikely to have it all their own way over the next month and a half, and Martin will be a key figure in any difficulties. With the ball, that is, not the bat.