AHMEDABAD: Defen­ding champions England face New Zealand in Thursday’s opening match of the World Cup in Ahm­edabad in a rematch of their epic showdown in the 2019 final at Lord’s.

England and New Zealand look pretty even when one looks at their overall head-to-head record in ODIs showing both have won 44 games each while three matches ended in tie and four had no result. The record in their World Cup matches is also almost equal.

However, the current England due to their relatively better profile hold a slight edge over their New Zealand counterparts.

Jos Buttler’s men come into the 10-team tournament with the depth to live up to their billing as one of the title favourites. Their campaign begins at the world’s biggest cricket arena, the 130,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium.

England have eight members from the squad that triumphed on home soil in the last World Cup under Eoin Morgan.

Buttler has slipped into the role of England’s white-ball captain with relative ease since Morgan’s retirement, leading them to the T20 World Cup crown in Australia last year.

Young batter Harry Brook is likely to make his tournament debut replacing Ben Stokes, who is nursing a minor hip injury, in today’s opener.

England sacrificed opener Jason Roy to accommodate the 24-year-old Brook, who has been marked out as a future superstar because of his explosive batting.

Stokes, who reversed his shock ODI retirement to return to the squad, has not yet been ruled out of Thursday’s opener but Buttler revealed why England’s number four batter was not fully fit.

“He [Stokes] is got a slight niggle with his hip. Fingers crossed that it will be good news for us,” Buttler told reporters at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Wednesday.

“He’s working hard with the physios and we’ll know more when the guys arrive for training [later] today.”

Test captain Stokes, who has long been nursing a troublesome knee, is back in the one-day setup purely as a batter and his record-breaking 182 against New Zealand last month proved what he is capable even in a reduced role.

England are naturally wary of rushing him so early in a six-week long tournament.

“We’ll make the right call here -- if he’s not fit to play, he’s not fit to play,” Buttler said.

“It’s not the time to take big risk on someone at the start of the tournament.”

Brook, an automatic pick in England’s Test side and part of their T20 World Cup-winning team last year, is likely to be the beneficiary of circumstances.

“Harry, we all know, what a fantastic player he is. The start of his international career has been outstanding in T20 cricket and in the Test format,” Buttler said. “He has not played loads of ODI cricket but it’s a format that should suit him perfectly.”

SOUTHEE TO MISS OPENER

Meanwhile, stand-in New Zealand skipper Tom Latham said fast bowler Tim Southee will miss their World Cup opener as he continues his recovery from thumb surgery.

Southee dislocated and fractured his thumb while attempting to take a catch during an ODI against England last month but was cleared to join the team in India having progressed well in his recovery.

New Zealand are also without regular skipper Kane Williamson for the opener as he recovers from a knee injury.

“No Kane and no Tim [Southee] as well,” Latham told reporters. “He’s unavailable for selection just in terms of what happened to his thumb ... but he’s recovering nicely.

“He’s nearly two weeks post-surgery so fingers crossed he can keep recovering. It’s a bit of a day-by-day process with him in terms of what that looks like.

“But fingers crossed he’ll be available sooner rather than later as well.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Latham said regular Williamson spent the last few months nursing a knee injury but the form he has showed since his return ahead of the World Cup made it seem like he had never been away.

Williamson’s participation at the event was thrown into doubt when he underwent surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament in April but he has impressed in warm-ups against Pakistan and South Afr­ica.

The 33-year-old will skip their tournament opener to build up his fitness, but Latham is delighted with his progress.

“It’s great to see Kane back and to see him batting,” Latham said at an earlier press conference. “It’s like he never left, to be honest, in terms of batting.

“It’s great to see him moving really well too. He’s playing all the shots he used to play.”

Latham, who will lead New Zealand on Thursday, said his team would treat their opener like any other game.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2023