Toss New Zealand selected to bowl vs England
Tom Latham selected to insert England on a “conventional”, green-tinged floor at Basin Reserve, as New Zealand seemed to discover a method again into the three-match collection after going 1-0 down in Christchurch.
“Whether or not you win or lose you are at all times trying to enhance,” Latham mentioned of how his aspect would reply to defeat. “The blokes have labored exhausting the final couple of days, I do not suppose we had been too distant, the outcome could counsel so however we did some great things all through that Check match. One other problem this week, the blokes are trying ahead to it.”
Ben Stokes mentioned that England had been planning to bat regardless, as they did right here in 2023 when dropping by one run after making New Zealand comply with on.
“I used to be very pleased with how everybody went concerning the recreation final week, a type of actual workforce efforts the place everybody stood up sooner or later,” he mentioned. “We had some excellent particular person performances in Harry Brook and Brydon Carse however when everyone seems to be contributing you already know you’ve got had a very good workforce efficiency.”
Each New Zealand and England had named unchanged XIs upfront, with Latham suggesting the hosts had sufficient part-time spin choices if required. England caught with the mixture of Jacob Bethell at No. 3 and Ollie Pope preserving wicket, the seamers on each side trusted to again up performances after a four-day turnaround between Checks.
New Zealand: 1 Tom Latham (capt), 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Will O’Rourke
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ollie Pope (wk), 7 Ben Stokes (capt), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Shoaib Bashir
