Hoggard was the last man standing from the 12-man squad picked for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s to start Thursday and Stuart Broad and James Anderson (pictured) will instead share the seam bowling duties with Ryan Sidebottom, along with Monty Panesar providing the spin option.

Veteran Hoggard, who needs five wickets to pass Brian Statham’s tally of 252 Test wickets and become the country’s fifth-most successful Test bowler, was controversially dropped along with Steve Harmison after England lost heavily in Hamilton in March.

“It is going to be the same team that won our last Test in Napier,” captain Michael Vaughan told reporters on Wednesday. “Hopefully it will be a similar performance and a similar result.”

Vaughan, Hoggard’s team-mate at county team Yorkshire, did spare a thought for his colleague though after his hard ork to regain his place.

“Hoggy has done everything we could have asked. He's gone back and bowled well for Yorkshire and got wickets, but when we've won a series and the guys that have come in and done reasonably well they deserve another opportunity.

“They've been given that opportunity at Lord's in front of a lot of people and hopefully they can produce some really good performances. Their goal is to try to keep the likes of Hoggard and Harmison out of the side so it's all there for them - they've just got to produce.”

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori, meantime, was declared fit to play at Lord’s after recovering from a cut on his spinning finger.