The stage is set as defending Champions England will face New Zealand in the opening match of the 2023 World Cup to be played at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on 5th October. It promises to be an exciting encounter between the champions and runners-up of the 2019 edition.
New Zealand has been dealt a major blow as Tim Southee and Kane Williamson will not feature in the first match as they are recovering from an injury. Tom Latham would lead the side and hope for an improved performance when they faced England in the ODI series.
On the other hand, England would be high on confidence as they will look to start their title defense with a bang. Their performance was brilliant in the recently concluded ODI series against New Zealand at home and made sure that they continued their domination over the Kiwis.
Match Details
Details– England vs. NZ, 1st Match, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023
Venue– Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Date and Time– 5th October, 2.00 PM IST
Head-to-Head Record
England and New Zealand played a total of 95 matches so far in One-day internationals so far. After a 3-1 victory over NZ recently, England won 44 encounters while New Zealand with 44 matches won, 4 yielded no result, and 3 ended in a tie.
Both teams have met on 10 occasions in World Cup history with England winning 5 matches while New Zealand 5 wins. During the 2019 finals, England won after a boundary with the match tied in regular and Super Over. Since the inception of the World Cup in 1975, both teams met each other since then.
Pitch Report
The pitch used at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad provides some assistance for the pace bowlers initially before it becomes a good pitch to bat on. As the games go on there might be some assistance for the spinners.
A total of 26 One-day international matches have been played at this venue with the team batting first won on 14 occasions while the team chasing won a total of 12 times. With dew likely to set in, the chasing team will have an advantage.
The captain that wins the toss would likely field first and restrict the opponents to a modest total. It will be interesting to see which team comes up triumph.
England (Eng) vs New Zealand (NZ)- Predicted Playing XI
England
Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (C, WK), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley.
New Zealand
Devon Conway, Will Young, Tom Latham (C, WK), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, James Nasheem, Mitchell Santer, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.
Fantasy Team Selection- Eng vs NZ
Team 1– Jonny Bairstow (C), Will Young, Ben Stokes, Daryl Mitchell, Liam Livingstone, Mark Chapman, Sam Curran, Mitchell Santer (VC), Mark Wood, Trent Boult, Adil Rashid.
Team 2– Dawid Malan, Devon Conway (VC), Joe Root, Tom Latham, Glenn Phillips, Jos Buttler (C), Moeen Ali, Matt Henry, Reece Topley, Ish Sodhi, Mark Wood.
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