The Kevin Pietersen era starts today at Lord's and even if it lasts for only one match the new England captain promised to enjoy himself and not let the burden of responsibility change him. “It's an amazing honour and I'm thrilled to bits,” he said. “But I think I'll be a similar kind of person. I'll be calm, pretty chilled and let my gut instincts and the brain that I've been given guide me.”

Although he emphasised that he was only standing in against New Zealand for Paul Collingwood, who has received a four-match ban for overseeing England's slow over-rate in the fourth NatWest Series one-day international at the Brit Oval on Wednesday, it will be interesting to see what stamp he can put on the team.

Yesterday he talked about giving certain players extra responsibilities, “to make people feel important and bring the best out of themselves” as England strive to draw level at 2-2 in the last game in the five-match series. He will be a captain who leads by example - how could such a natural showman not be? - but perhaps he will also be more interested in understanding how other people tick than, say, Andrew Flintoff was.

In one-day cricket England remain a riddle wrapped in an enigma. After showing much character in beating India at home and Sri Lanka away in 2007, they have won only two one-day matches this year and are rooted at seventh in the ICC one-day world rankings. Only one batsman (Pietersen, at No8) is in the top 20 of the one-day ratings, while Flintoff, at No15, is their leading bowler.

Since 2000, England have played 100 one-day internationals in series involving two teams and have won 45. There have been highs (340 for six in Napier) and lows (104 all out in Colombo) in the past year and it is unsure if this is a promising team or one who flatter to deceive.

The captaincy was a fine birthday present for Pietersen, who turned 28 yesterday, and by happy coincidence his family had arranged to fly over from South Africa. They will see Pietersen become the fourth African-born England captain after Tony Greig, Allan Lamb and Andrew Strauss. The previous three did at least have experience of running a team, but when asked about his captaincy record yesterday Pietersen struggled to recall even being asked to lead a school XI. “My experience? Zilch,” he said. When told that Mick Newell, his former coach at Nottinghamshire, had said that he had once captained the county in a pre-season match, he said: “That's news to me. I might have.”

At least he has familiarity with the opposition to guide him. This will be the tenth one-day international between the teams this year, with six Test matches thrown in as well, and Pietersen said that it will help him to know how best to attack. “If we do everything that we have said we will in our meeting then I'll be smoking a cigar at mid-off,” he said.

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, said that Pietersen was “the logical choice” as captain but that he hoped to exploit his new opposite number's exuberance. “From knowing Kevin and the way he plays his game I assume he'll be reasonably aggressive, so there may be some opportunities there with the way he sets fields,” Vettori said.

The New Zealand captain added that England would miss Collingwood, not only for his captaincy but for his “all-round capabilities”. “It is a gaping hole that has been left,” Vettori said. “In our dressing-room, we think Paul is England's best player.”

New Zealand may be without Grant Elliott, the all-rounder, who injured his right thigh in the controversial collision with Ryan Sidebottom at the Oval. “Grant's not shaped up too well and is going through some rigorous tests,” Vettori said. “We want to put our full-strength side out, so he's definitely in if he's fit.” With Scott Styris able to bowl ten overs if needed, New Zealand will probably play an extra batsman if Elliott is not fit.

Naturally, conversation revolved around Sidebottom poleaxing Elliott and England's decision to run out the New Zealander. “What's done is done,” Pietersen said, trying to draw a line under the subject. “We're not feeling great about what happened but in the heat of the battle people do things. We're men, sometimes the red mist comes down.”

Vettori said that because New Zealand won the game it made it easier to overlook the argument. A generally mild-mannered man, he said that he regretted his angry reaction but that it was good to see his team united in anger about the decision.

“I don't want to react like that in the future but everything moves on quickly and we were able to get the right result,” he said.

Explore Cricket

• Counties

• Live Scores