ENGvsNZ: Tom Latham puts England to bat first in World Cup opener after winning the toss

Tom Latham, who is leading New Zealand without regular captain Kane Williamson, put England to bat first in the World Cup opener after winning the toss on Thursday!

The opener is being played, at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, and is a kind of rematch of the epic 2019 WC final when England won a tied game on boundary countback.

New Zealand rested regular captain Kane Williamson (suffering from a knee injury) and pace bowler Tim Southee (thumb injury), to give them more time to recover.

Meanwhile, England are playing without Ben Stokes, who is nursing a minor hip injury, with Harry Brook replacing him at number four.

After winning the toss, Latham said,” We’re going to have a bowl, it looks a reasonably good surface but hopefully later on when he gets a chance with the bat, it gets better.”

“Preparation has been great,” he added.

England captain Jos Buttler said England too would have preferred to bowl first in the match.

“We’re very proud to be world champions and what we achieved four years ago but this is something new,” Buttler said.

“We’re not defending anything, we’re here to attack and win it again.”

Teams:

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

New Zealand: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk/capt), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Matt Henry, Mitchell Santner, James Neesham, Trent Boult