England batsman Jonathan Trott has denied suggestions that his side were complacent going into their first Test match against New Zealand in Dunedin.

The tourists look likely to taste defeat in the series opener, having been bowled out for 167 before the Black Cats raced to an unbeaten 131 on day one.

While Trott does not believe his side were complacent, he admits that England need to do better with the bat and hopes that they have their worst performance out of the way.

"We needed to start the series well and get into the match and unfortunately we couldn't do that," Trott told Sky Sports News. "They bowled pretty well but we just played into their hands really.

"[The batting] was not up to scratch. It was a good wicket and we should have got a lot more [runs]. It was very uncharacteristic of how we've played over the last couple of months. We tried to claw our way back into the game but we couldn't do that and we paid the price.

"We have got to fight our way back into this cricket match. We've got a big three days ahead of us. We've faced big challenges like this before. This is going to be a good one if we can pull it off."

Trott top-scored for England with 45 runs.