England T20 captain Stuart Broad has rubbished the idea that his players would take New Zealand lightly heading into the three series in the Antipodes, saying if the Black Caps could beat South Africa then they were worth paying attention to.

England start their tour with three T20s, followed by three ODIs and three Tests. While the Black Caps lost the Tests against the Proteas by a convincing margin, they did well in the shorter formats and won the ODI series.

This means England will be starting off against the hosts' best formats, and a slightly more confident unit, while the Three Lions themselves are coming off a series defeat to India. Thus, Broad is not allowing his homework to go undone.

The T20 skipper said: "We know New Zealand have just beaten South Africa in the one-day format and having played a lot of Twenty20 cricket against them, we know they're very dangerous.

"We'll have to prepare for that and get used to the conditions as much as we can. We know New Zealand have some fantastic Twenty20 players and that's who we'll concentrate on... we'll have to be at the top of our game."

Broad added that he and his players were ignoring all the drama surrounding the Black Caps captaincy, saying the business with Ross Taylor had nothing to do with their planning and that they were focused on the game alone.

He said: "If we focus on New Zealand cricket and what is going to happen ahead we'll lose sight of what we need to do."

The first T20 will be played on 9 February in Auckland.