Key events
England have named their team, which has possibly the shortest tail in English cricket history. There are three changes from the third ODI in New Zealand: Zak Crawley (the very same), Will Jacks and Liam Dawson replace Jamie Smith, Brydon Carse and Jofra Archer.
England Crawley, Duckett, Root, Bethell, Brook (c), Buttler (wk), Jacks, S Curran, J Overton, Dawson, Rashid.
Preamble
Are you over it yet? Nah, me either, but at least we have to some fresh cricket to distract us. A fortnight after the end of the most disappointing Ashes series in living memory, England begin their preparation for the T20 World Cup with a three-match ODI series.
A lot has changed since England’s last ODI in New Zealand in November. The Ashes dream has gone poof!, Brendon McCullum is fighting for his job. And it’s probably fair to assume Harry Brook had an early night yesterday.
One thing remains the same: if England don’t start winning ODIs soon, they will miss out on automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup. England are currently eighth in the ODI rankings; to qualify automatically, they need to be in the top nine when the music stops in March 2027. If not they will be parachuted into the Cricket World Cup qualifier that summer.
England will surely qualify one way or another. But for a team who were redefining ODI cricket a decade ago, it’s all a bit ignominious.
Today’s match starts at 9am GMT.
