New Zealand face a battle to get their squad together here in time for the start of Thursday's first Test, with five players missing from training on Monday.

Three of their Test squad – Blair Tickner, Will Young and Henry Nicholls – were stranded because of the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle on travel around the north island of New Zealand while two others in Matt Henry and Tom Blundell were still on paternity leave.

The Black Caps hope the stranded three will be able to make their way to the team base in nearby Tauranga by road or later flights if the situation, as expected, eases on Tuesday but question marks remain over Henry, awaiting the birth of his first child in Christchurch, and Blundell, who is with family in Wellington following the arrival of his second.

'It's disappointing the weather is how it is but there's a lot of people at the top of the north island a lot worse off than us,' said New Zealand coach Gary Stead. 

'The cyclone has just had a wee bit of an impact on us.'

Stead is expecting new Kiwi Test captain Tim Southee to match the ultra-positive approach England will bring to this series having been influenced by his former Black Caps captain, friend and now England coach Brendon McCullum.

'I think Tim will be an aggressive captain,' said Stead. 

'Tim and Brendon are good mates so I'm sure there's a lot of mutual respect there and Tim has done a lot of learning through Brendon and the way he captained our team.'

'Bazball' was born last year when England defeated New Zealand 3-0 in McCullum's first series at the helm but Stead is expecting them to come ever harder this time.

'England have actually grown more since then and are probably playing an even more aggressive style,' said the New Zealand coach. 

'But what I do remember is that either side could have won going into the last day of all three of those Tests and that's exciting for us now. 

'A 3-0 defeat didn't look good on paper but a lot of good cricket was played by both sides.'