NZ-England match: No Stokes or Williamson

AHMEDABAD: New Zealand wins the toss and invites England to bat first in the ICC World Cup 2023 opener here on Thursday.

Captain for the New Zealand team Tom Latham after winning the toss said it looks like a reasonably good surface and hopefully we give us a chance with the bat later on.

“Guys have been in different parts of the world and got together here a week ago. Any competition you play in the lead-up to the World Cup is important. Kane is not quite ready yet and is progressing nicely. Ferguson has a bit of a niggle and misses out along with Sodhi, Kane and Tim Southee”, he said.

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Jos Buttler, the Captain for the England team said: “We would have looked to bowl first. We had a good series against New Zealand and everyone seems to be a in really good place. Ben is going to miss this game. He has a niggle. The guys missing out: Atkinson, Topley, Willey and Stokes”.

Teams

New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Will Young, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (capt/wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Mark Chapman, 8 James Neesham, 9 Mitchell Santner, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Trent Boult

England: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt/wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood