England vs New Zealand ODI series preview: Can England buck the trend?

New Zealand were runners-up in the recently concluded World Cup

With the first ODI between England and New Zealand round the corner, here’s a sneak-peak into the two sides and how they are shaping up before the start of the limited-overs contest. While New Zealand will look to strengthen their reputation of a strong ODI unit by winning the series, England would want to get their ODI campaign on track by putting up a good show against a quality side.

England have made some high-profile omissions from their ODI squad which includes dropping James Anderson, Stuart Broad, and Ian Bell. After a disastrous World Cup campaign in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year; a campaign that saw England fail to qualify for the knockouts, it seems the ECB is finally moving on. Garry Balance too has been benched after a relatively poor run in the ODIs and Moeen Ali has been left out to work on his game ahead of the all-important Ashes series starting from July.

England’s spate of poor performances in the limited overs format is symptomatic of the ECB’s head in the sand attitude towards the ODI side. The fact that they are finally willing to breed youngsters in and are envisaging an ODI outfit for the next World Cup bodes well for the future; at least it’s a start. Sam Billings, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey and Mark Wood are some of the other fresh names that have been added to the squad for the ODI series against New Zealand.

The infusion of fresh blood and new ideas should help England start anew as they ought to improve considerably if they want to beat a spirited New Zealand side. Eoin Morgan will be leading the team during the series.

New Zealand, on the other hand, will have their confidence running through the roof after a riveting performance that saw them square the test series against England 1-1 after losing the first test match at Lord’s. What makes the Kiwis such a pleasant team to watch is the aggressive brand of cricket.

At Lord’s, despite having their backs to the wall, they didn’t curb their natural style of playing and took the attack to the opposition putting England bowlers to the sword at all times. Although they lost that test, the momentum helped them beat England convincingly in the second test at Leeds by 199 runs.

Brendon McCullum, with his feisty leadership, has shown a knack of taking the attack to the opposition forcing them to make mistakes at crucial junctures in the match. And with England already under the cosh, now might be a really good time for McCullum and his men to press the pressure on the hosts.

In the recently concluded practice match against Leicestershire which New Zealand won by a massive margin of 198 runs, Grand Elliott and Luke Ronchi both scored unbeaten hundreds helping their side post an intimidating target of 373/5 in 50 overs. Martin Guptill’s return to the ODI squad means a resumption of the World Cup opening combination alongside Captain Brendon McCullum, and England bowlers will do well to bowl a disciplined line and length lest these two take a liking to their bowling. With Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor lending strength to the middle order, their batting does look very imposing at the moment.

The bowling department too has enough muscle to trouble the rather inexperienced English batters. Trent Boult and Tim Southee’s dangerous blend of swing and pace will test the English batsmen up front with Mitchell McClenaghan hurrying the batsmen with his aggressive bowling later on in the innings. He will be replacing fast bowler Matt Henry who is unfortunate to miss out his place after a decent show during the recent test series against England.

A comparison of the two sides would suggest that New Zealand have their nose in front at the moment and it will take a strong-willed performance on the part of England if they want to overpower their opponents. As for New Zealand, the fact that they have been able to sustain their eye-catching style of playing is really noteworthy and a heady cocktail of excellent captaincy and some good, hard brave cricket has helped them forge a formidable ODI outfit out of 11 individuals.

However, this is not to say that England don’t stand a chance at all. With a fairly inexperienced side behind him, Captain Eoin Morgan, whose ODI average in the past one year has been abysmal, to say the least, will have to lead by example. Joe Root, Alex Hales, and Jos Buttler will have to be in their elements to counter a potent Kiwi bowling attack.

Fast bowler Steven Finn will be keen to solidify his reputation as a wicket-taking bowler and England would want him to come to his own during the course of the ODI series. That said, things don’t look extremely promising for the hosts, but this is just the kind of opportunity that England needed after their dwindling form in international cricket in the past one year.

We have a cracker of a series at hand here and given the quality of talent in both the camps, we are assured of an exciting contest between bat and ball as both sides gear up for the first ODI at Birmingham on Tuesday.