New Zealand head coach Gary Stead believes England will be "more of a threat" when they face off in a three-Test series next month, following their major overhaul.
After a terrible run of form which saw England win just one of their last 17 Test matches, they have appointed a new Managing Director of Men's Cricket in Rob Key, a new Test captain in Ben Stokes and are set to appoint two new head coaches.
And despite England's poor recent record, Stead has rejected any suggestions that New Zealand can "roll them over", insisting England remain a "quality team" and that the changes will give them "an immediate lift".
Stead said: "I see them being more of a threat to be honest. Whenever that happens, you usually see a bit of an immediate lift around the performance of the team who want to prove things, I guess, to the new leaders of the group.
"I imagine there will be an immediate steel to their group. I think the abrasive way he [Stokes] plays will probably have a rub-off to the group as well.
"Part of what we will be trying to do is making things very, very hard for Ben Stokes as immediately as we can. And if we can do that then hopefully that might nullify the strength of the English.
"But they are still a quality team. You look through the list, there's world-class players throughout the team so it's certainly not that we are going over there expecting just to roll them over."
Stead also said he felt positive about captain Kane Williamson's fitness, with the 31-year-old having missed New Zealand's last four Test matches due to a long-standing elbow issue. He added: "He's going really well. Been talking to him regularly the last week or so and he has no issues at all, training almost completely unrestricted now.
'Still just being careful around the overloading side of it so if that means he has a really big day batting just making sure he's not doing too much the next day. It will be an ongoing thing probably for the rest of his career that we will need to keep managing."
