Toss: New Zealand chose to bowl v England
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Ben Stokes made his return to Tests, albeit primarily as a specialist batsman amid concerns regarding his workload and fitness for the longer format. He missed the Ashes, which England lost 4-0, due to an impending investigation after his alleged street brawl in Bristol. England captain Joe Root also confirmed he will move up to No. 3, which meant James Vince was dropped after a sub-par Ashes, as Kane Williamson chose to bowl in New Zealand’s first day-night Test in Auckland.
With questions around Stokes’ workload – he hasn’t bowled in first-class cricket for best part of six months – England brought in an additional fast bowler in Craig Overton, who impressed with his bounce and consistency in Perth in the Ashes, before missing the rest of the tour with a fractured rib.
“We would’ve batted,” Root said at the toss. “Looks a decent pitch and we’ll have a good few hours batting in daylight. Stokes is a day-by-day monitoring process. He’ll bat at five.”
New Zealand, whose playing XI was announced on the eve of the first Test, included Ross Taylor, wicketkeeper BJ Watling and legspinner Todd Astle. Watling missed the West Indies Tests due to a hip injury.
“Hopefully there’ll be a little bit in it early,” Kane Williamson said. “We don’t really expect it to deteriorate. Had a lot of white-ball cricket, practiced with the pink ball over the last week. Pretty exciting, a lot of unknowns, there hasn’t been too much pink-ball Tests”
New Zealand: 1 Jeet Raval, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Todd Astle, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Trent Boult
England: 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Mark Stoneman, 3 Joe Root (capt), 4 Dawid Malan, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Craig Overton 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson
Source: ESPN Crickinfo