Toss New Zealand selected to bowl first vs England
After a build-up dominated by Cyclone Gabrielle – which wreaked havoc throughout the North Island and in acknowledgement of which the groups will likely be sporting black armbands – the climate is about truthful throughout Bay Oval, a floor whose sand-based outfield, auspiciously, is among the many fastest-draining grounds on the earth.
And given the green-tinged pitch has spent a lot time underneath wraps within the build-up to the Test, neither captain was fully positive what to anticipate, with Ben Stokes admitting his reduction at not having to make the selection: “I didn’t really know what I was going to do, so I would have said the first thing that came into my head.”
Indecision has been notably missing in England’s method underneath Stokes, nonetheless, and true to latest type, he named his XI two days out from the beginning. Stuart Broad returns to the set-up, after lacking the Pakistan tour because of the start of his first youngster, whereas Ben Duckett stays the person in possession alongside Zak Crawley on the prime of the order, after a formidable return to motion on that tour.
Last yr, New Zealand have been the primary workforce to come across England’s formidable new method to Test cricket – shedding every of the primary three Tests of Stokes’ alliance with Brendon McCullum, the pinnacle coach whose return to his native New Zealand has been one of many speaking factors of this tour.
New Zealand: 1 Tom Latham, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Henry Nicholls, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn, 9 Tim Southee (capt), 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Blair Tickner
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Ollie Robinson, 9 Jack Leach, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson
Source web site: www.espncricinfo.com
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