Ben Stokes, one of New Zealand’s biggest thorns since that epic final against England at Lord’s in 2019, is doubtful for the ODI World Cup opener between the two teams in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Stokes, Man of the Match for his unbeaten 84 in that final four years ago, also hammered 182 against the Black Caps in an ODI at The Oval last month which is still fresh in the minds of the Black Caps. But a hip concern may keep him out of the XI when England begin their title defence against the runners-up of the last edition.
“Ben has got a slight sort of niggle with his hip, but fingers crossed that that’ll be good news for us. He’s working hard with the physios,” captain Jos Buttler said on the eve of the tournament opener.
Stokes came out of ODI retirement in August in spite of a long-standing knee injury and is not expected to bowl in this World Cup, having made himself available as a specialist batsman. He also didn’t feature in England’s warm-up game against Bangladesh in Guwahati on Monday due to this hip complaint.
New Zealand, on the other hand, will be without pacer Tim Southee who’s still recovering from a thumb injury.
“Tim’s unavailable for selection just in terms of what happened to his thumb a couple of weeks ago, but he’s recovering nicely,” keeper-batter Tom Latham, who will
be leading the side in place of regular captain Kane Williamson (still not ready for the opener), said.
“I think Tim is 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 too. But fingers crossed, he’ll be available sooner than later as well.”
With Southee absent, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry are likely to form New Zealand’s fast-bowling group at the Motera.
If Stokes does miss out on Thursday, Harry Brook could be the one to bat at No.4 for England. Brook’s ODI record isn’t outstanding by any means as he has scored just 123 runs is six appearances so far, but England are confident he can emulate his Test and T20 success in the 50-over format too.
“We all know what a fantastic player he (Brook) is,” Buttler said. “He’s at the start of an international career that has been outstanding in T20 cricket and in the Test format.
“He hasn’t played loads of ODI cricket, but it’s a format that should suit him perfectly. It’ll allow him to bat for a long time and make big runs, and that’s something he enjoys doing. He’s got all the shots.”
The Motera pitch is expected to be batsmen-friendly and it won’t be surprising if the surface has striking similarities with the one prepared for this year’s IPL final between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans. It’s interesting to see what combination England go in with as New Zealand are set to include both left-armer Mitchell Santner and leg-spinner Ish Sodhi in their XI.
But what about England? Should they field just one spinner in the form of the experienced Adil Rashid and leave the rest of the spinning duties to part-timer Liam Livingstone? Or, should they include off-spinner all-rounder Moeen Ali in place of seamer all-rounder Sam Curran, with Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Reece Topley looking after the pace attack?
Both Moeen and Curran, thanks to their IPL experience, are quite familiar with these conditions.
“The ball, in the IPL season just gone, did swing around a little bit. Look at Gujarat Titans. Their strong pace attack shows it’s not all about spin in India,” Buttler pointed out.
