England are looking to “climax at the right time” after cutting their only warm-up game ahead of the New Zealand Test series, according to Jack Leach.
The tourists will play two days against a New Zealand eleven in Hamilton, instead of the planned four.
This follows a similar move before the series in Pakistan before Christmas, which England won 3-0.
“We work smarter as a group and it’s about peaking for this first test,” spinner Leach told BBC Sport.
The two-day tour match, which kicks off on Wednesday (01:00 GMT), will be played with a pink ball under floodlights to help England prepare for the first Day-Night Test at Mount Maunganui on February 16.
It will be followed by an optional training session – the majority of training sessions in England are optional – on Friday and a day off on Saturday, before England travel to Mount Maunganui to finalize the preparations for the series of two tests.
“Something I’ve found in the past is that I peaked a bit early in a tour and then struggled to stick to it,” Leach said.
“Sometimes you let worry about what might happen cause you to train at the top and then peak too soon. It’s about peaking at the right time and that’s something we thought about.”
Prior to the sweep in Pakistan, England played England Lions in Abu Dhabi in a match that was due to last four days but was cut to three.
The flexible and relaxed approach to training has been embraced by coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes, the latter having previously said: “I feel like in cricket a lot of training sessions are for fun and you don’t get much out of it.
“You just go there because that’s what to see. There has to be a result for that effort, not showing up, rolling your arm, having a bat for 30 minutes but not getting anything out of it and not not improve as a player.”
It’s an approach that has worked, with England winning nine of their 10 Tests under Stokes and McCullum.
“Five-day testing is hard work,” said left-hand Leach, 31. “You want to be a mix of ready-made and fresh.
“We trust each other and we trust each other a lot better. Confidence goes a long way to achieving good performances. That relaxed feeling definitely pays off.”
After the two Tests in New Zealand, England face Ireland at Lord’s in June before attempting to win back the Ashes from Australia.
Despite being just three games away from facing their oldest and fiercest rivals, Somerset’s Leach claims the Ashes have not been discussed by the England squad.
“You know the Ashes are there, but what I learned a lot was to be in the moment,” he said.
“When we were behind in games and ended up winning them, we were only able to do that by trying to win every moment of the game. That’s something in other teams in which I played where maybe it wasn’t.”
During England’s last test tour to New Zealand in 2019, Leach, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, fell seriously ill. Food poisoning caused sepsis and left Leach in fear for his life.
“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t fall asleep, because you might not wake up.’ It was so serious in terms of how I felt,” he said in 2020.
On Tuesday, speaking at the same Hamilton hotel where he fell ill, Leach said he had “bad memories” but put the experience behind him.
On the Pakistan tour, he recorded his 100th Test wicket, while his 46 scalps in 2022 were only bettered by Australian Nathan Lyon and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada.
“I feel like I’ve come a long way since then and love being part of this England team,” Leach said.
“I’m going to keep working hard, keep loving it. That’s the main thing for me – when I’m enjoying my cricket, I’m giving myself the best chance. I’m going to keep doing that and see where it takes me.”
