England v New Zealand LIVE: Result and reaction from Cricket World Cup 2023 opener as Kiwis win by nine wickets

“We’re going to have a bowl, it looks a reasonably good surface but hopefully later on when he get a chance with the bat, it gets better.

“Preparation has been great, we’ve had guys in all parts of the world and we came together about a week ago, had a couple of good warm-up games and guys are excited to get stuck into things.

“Any matches you play leading into a World cup are vitally important, we had an exciting series with England that unfortunately we came out on the wrong side of but it was great preparation.

“Unfortunately, Kane Williamson is not quite ready yet but hopefully it’s a day by day thing. Lockie Ferguson has got a bit of a niggle so he’ll miss out.”

England XI: Bairstow, Malan, Root, Brook, Buttler, Ali, Livingstone, Woakes, Curran, Rashid, Wood

New Zealand XI: Conway, Young, Ravindra, Mitchell, Latham, Phillips, Chapman, Neesham, Santner, Henry, Boult

A few pictures from this morning’s warm-up in Ahmedabad:

The Cricket World Cup begins today with a rematch of the 2019 final as England take on New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Jos Buttler’s men will defend their crown during this tournament in India and will be hoping to get off to a winning start today. Ben Stokes misses out and we’ll have the official team news shortly.

Tom Latham, New Zealand’s captain, wins the toss and decides to field first meaning England will set a target for them to chase down.

Kane Williamson isn’t fit to play and neither is Lockie Ferguson and Tim Southee.

England captain Jos Buttler says that he would have liked to have bowled first as well but is looking forward to getting this World Cup campaign started.

As expected Ben Stokes misses out with a hip niggle and so does Reece Topley, Gus Atkinson and David Willey.

Tomorrow’s match will see Pakistan take on Netherlands, but Pakistan captain Babar Azam feels like he’s playing a Cricket World Cup at home, even if his lineup is unsettled.

The world’s top-ranked ODI batter — for more than two years — is searching for the right balance for his starting XI going into Pakistan’s opening day-nighter against Netherlands on Friday at Hyderabad.

Babar was in good touch despite Pakistan’s losses in warm-up games to New Zealand and Australia, scoring 80 and an unbeaten 90. Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel and Iftikhar Ahmed were also among the runs as Pakistan went close to 350-run marks in both games before finishing on the wrong side of the results.

“We are here for a week in Hyderabad, so we do not feel like we are in India, it’s like we are at home,” Babar said of the central Indian city, which has a large population of Muslim people, during a pre-tournament news conference.

The six-week tournament was opening Thursday with a rematch of the 2019 final between England and New Zealand.

Babar and his teammates were given a warm reception when they arrived in India after they were issued visas less than 36 hours prior to their departure from Lahore.

“We received good hospitality, and we were not expecting this, but I think the way people responded to us, everyone enjoyed it,” Babar said. “I think it’s a golden opportunity for everyone to give 100% and enjoy the tournament.”

The first match will see a repeat of the thrilling super-over final in 2019 which England won at Lord’s on the final ball. It was a final that few could forget, and it was England who won their first ever 50-over World Cup title.

India are one of the favourites as tournament hosts, despite having not won the trophy for over a decade – in fact they did not make the final in either of the last two tournaments. Their first match will be worth the wait of an extra few days when they take on Australia on 8 October in Chennai.

Buttler said England’s Ben Stokes sustained a “hip niggle” ahead of the match, and he was notably absent during the warm-up against Bangladesh.

England will be hoping Stokes can pull through and train well enough on the eve of the tournament to be passed fit for the opener against the country of his birth. If he cannot, Harry Brook is likely to replace Stokes at number four in the batting order.

Kane Williamson marked his return from a six-month absence with a half-century during the Kiwi’s warm-up against Pakistan.

Williamson ruptured his ACL in March 2023 during the opening Indian Premier League match and had to undergo surgery, but the opener against England is expected to be a bit too soon for the captain.

England XI: Bairstow, Malan, Root, Brook, Buttler, Livingstone, Ali, Curran, Woakes, Rashid, Topley

New Zealand XI: Young, Conway, Nicholls, Mitchell, Latham, Phillips, Ravindra, Boult, Santner, Jamieson, Ferguson

England vs New Zealand in the ICC Cricket World Cup will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket, with coverage starting from 9am.

For those in India, Star Sports will be showing the match in five different languages on TV.

The game can also be streamed online on the Disney+Hotstar app or website.

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