England vs New Zealand, World Cup 2023 Match 1: Toss

Tom Latham, standing in for the injured Kane Williamson, won toss and opted to bowl at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. England captain Jos Buttler announced that he would have bowled first as well.

ENG vs NZ, CWC 2023 Match 1: Team updates and XIs

England: Jos Buttler (c & wk), Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.

New Zealand: Tom Latham (c & wk), Devon Conway, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Rachin Ravindra, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Trent Boult.

Ben Stokes did not recover in time from his hip niggle, and England picked Harry Brook instead. They also picked Sam Curran ahead of fellow left-arm seamers Reece Topley and David Willeu.

New Zealand, too, had to leave out Lockie Ferguson, who has picked up a niggle. Neither Kane Williamson nor Tim Southee has recovered for the match (Latham led instead of Williamson), which left them with 12 fit cricketers. Of them, they left out Ish Sodhi.

Both teams have stacked their teams with batters and all-rounders, and have gone in with extremely long batting line-ups. As a result, expect big scores, more so because part-time bowlers will come into play.

Adil Rashid, the England No.10, has 10 first-class hundreds, while Mitchell Santner, New Zealand’s potential No.9, has a Test hundred and often bats in the top seven.

The two teams have met 10 times at the World Cup, and have won five times each. England’s wins included the tied final of the 2019 World Cup that was decided by the Super Over.