NZ and England vow all-out attack
If you believe all the pre-match talk then cricketing fireworks from both sides will illuminate Edgbaston early on Wednesday.
In their first one-day international since the World Cup final defeat in Melbourne, which ended a 10-match winning streak, New Zealand’s rip-roaring approach won’t have too many surprises. It’s England who offer the intrigue after a player cleanout following their timid World Cup exit, morphing into a team stacked with young batsmen who like to give the white ball a clout.
‘‘We have to be looking at scores of 350 and upwards. That’s the way the game’s going. In a few years we’ll look back at the World Cup and say it was a turning point in 50-over cricket,’’ wicketkeeper Jos Buttler said.
‘‘The way Brendon McCullum captained, the way AB De Villiers batted. This was a moment in time when the game changed and we have to follow that lead. We don’t have any other choice.’’
The teams cut contrasting figures. The Black Caps’ stocks haven’t been higher in ODI cricket while England’s couldn’t get much lower with seven defeats from 11 ODIs in 2015. New Zealand, ranked third in the world, enter the fivematch series as pronounced favourites while the sixth-ranked hosts can swing fearlessly and make a statement without regulars James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ian Bell, Moeen Ali and Gary Ballance.
A new opening pair of Twenty20 blaster Alex Hales and South African-born Jason Roy, a run machine for Surrey, signals their intent although the impetus will start with skipper Eoin Mor- gan who looked all at sea against his great mate McCullum in the great Cake Tin ambush in February.
It all means New Zealand will be wary, not watchful, and will have done their homework on the unfamiliar faces like Roy, fellow batsman Sam Billings, allrounder David Willey and legspinner Adil Rashid.
McCullum will come out swinging as is his custom, and so will Ross Taylor who vowed to break his own batting shackles.
Taylor averaged 31.5 at the World Cup, at a pedestrian strike rate of 61.5, after last year joining a select club of those to score three successive ODI centuries. Having scratched around in England he decided enough was enough, and cracked a run-a-ball 48 in the second innings of the test win in Leeds, then cleared the rope four times in his 77 off 62 in Sunday’s warmup win over Leicestershire.
‘‘I haven’t scored as many as I would have liked and I have made a conscious effort to express myself and get back to the way I want to play – to hit the ball like when I first played for New Zealand,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘You can go two ways, you can try to graft it out a bit which I did at Lord’s or try to play your shots as I did at Leeds and against Leicestershire. It was nice to get a few out of the middle and get some rhythm back.’’
From the team who lost to Australia at the MCG on March 29, Nathan McCullum will likely come in for the retired Daniel Vettori. For game one you’d expect an otherwise unchanged side, depending on Corey Anderson’s recovery from a back injury and the fitness of pacemen Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Matt Henry who got through a power of work in the two tests. Left-armer Mitchell McClenaghan is pushing hard again after a lively Indian Premier League for champions Mumbai then a four-wicket haul at Leicester. Spinning allrounder Mitchell Santner and left-arm quick Ben Wheeler should both debut later in the series after impressive efforts in the test warmups.
England won their previous two ODIs against New Zealand at home in 2013, in Nottingham when Buttler went berserk, and a rainshortened Champions Trophy contest in Cardiff. Since then the Black Caps flew onwards and set the benchmark for all ODI sides bar Australia.