On 2nd June, at the Lord’s Stadium, London, England will play its first Test of a two-match series on their home ground this summer against New Zealand.
England decided to take the field without Test regular players and multi-format players like Sam Curran, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Jos Buttler, and Jonny Bairstow, on the other hand.
New Zealand has the golden opportunity to get prepared for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final, which will happen later this month.
Their goal will be to make the most of these two games to get used to the conditions and get their team mish-mash right.
In the meantime, the cricketing world will see the new talent of England with Ollie Robinson and James Bracey getting call-ups.
Fresh Haseeb Hameed, who made his Test debut against India in the year 2016, has also been involved in the squad. After getting injured Ben Foakes could be replaced by Sam Billings who will be making his Test debut in the game.
Pitch and Weather conditions:
Lord’s ground has not hosted any international game for more than twenty months.
The wicket at Lord’s is a balanced one with something in it both for batsmen and the bowlers. The seam bowlers could get some advantage off the wicket in the match, whereas the spin bowlers could have an impact on the fourth and fifth days of the game.
However, there is a huge chance of rain impacting the match due to the shower forecast on the game’s third, fourth, and fifth days.
Predicted XIs:
England: Dominic Sibley, Rory Burns, James Bracey(WK), Joe Root(C), Ollie Pope, Daniel Lawrence, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Jack Leach, and Olly Stone.
New Zealand: Tom Blundell, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson(C), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling(WK), Darryl Mitchell, Kyle Jamieson, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee, and Neil Wagner.
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