New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl first against England
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01:48
‘2015 was men vs boys’ – Morgan
“A little bit of weather around,” said New Zealand’s captain Kane Williamson. He could have been talking about the opening week of the Champions Trophy, but he was just talking about Cardiff where the wind was blustery and heavy showers were forecast. Unsurprisingly, after winning the toss, he elected to bowl.
A home series against New Zealand in 2015 is where England’s one-day reinvention began, but it was Williamson’s side which had the opportunity to make an immediate impact this time. “Hopefully we will be able to make some inroads with the ball in our hand,” he said.
The legspin of Adil Rashid was back in favour for England because of the injury that has ruled allrounder Chris Woakes out of the rest of the tournament. Morgan felt able to shrug off the inclement weather and the shorter straight Cardiff boundaries because of growing confidence over the fitness of England’s talismanic allrounder, Ben Stokes. Jake Ball, preferred to David Willey, will take the new ball. New Zealand were unchanged.
“A fully fit Ben Stokes allows us to have four out-and-out seamers,” Morgan said. “But Chris Woakes has been a consistent cricketer for us for a very long time so it isn’t ideal.”
The rain has so far fallen in England’s favour as far as these two sides are concerned. It held off during England’s victory against Bangladesh but brought frustration for New Zealand by falling when they looked well placed for victory against Australia.
England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 Jake Ball, 11 Mark Wood
New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Luke Ronchi (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Neil Broom, 6 James Neesham 7 Corey Anderson, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Trent Boult
David Hopps is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo