Match: England v New Zealand 1st Test
Date: 3rd June 2021
Format: 5-day test
Stadium: Lords, England
Trends & Recent Form
International test cricket returns for England with a 2 match test series against New Zealand. This is a short visit from New Zealand with only these 2 matches taking place. After this, England has a T20 series against Sri Lanka while New Zealand heads to Australia for 3 ODIs and a one-off T20 match.
Here we will look at the form of both teams and make our match prediciton.
England Test Form
World Ranking: 3rd – 109 points
Top players
- Top Batsman: Joe Root (Ranked 4th)
- Top Bowler: James Anderson (Ranked 4th)
Latest stats and trends
- England has continued with their rest and rotate policy for this test match. This will mean a number of changes from the last team that paid. The idea is to reduce bubble fatigue on the players, we are not sure this is a great policy.
- Alex Hayles and Haseeb Hameed are back in the squad.
- Jofra Archer is missing after having an operation on a shoulder injury. He has said he needs to get this right or he “won’t be able to play cricket, period”.
- An estimated 18,000 fans will be at the second test under a UK government pilot scheme.
- England lost 3-1 in the last test series to India, who is now the number 1 ranked team in the world.
- After winning the first test Englnd slumped to some heavy deafats. They did not seem to get on with the Indain wickets and struggled to make any decent scores.
- In the last 3 tests the highest innings score they had was 205 all out and the lowest was 81 all out. They will need to perfrom significantly better than that to get a win here.
New Zealand form
World Ranking: 2nd – 120 points
Top players
- Top Batsman: Kane Williamson (Ranked 1st)
- Top Bowler: Neil Wagner (Ranked 3rd)
Latest stats and trends
- New Zealand is closing in on India to become the best Test team in the world. They are just 1 point behind them currently on 120 points.
- They have 2 batsman and 2 bowlers in the top 10 test players in the world. Kane Williamson is a phenomenal batsman in great form and will be a big player for New Zealand in this 2 match series.
- Rachin Ravindra is heading for his maiden test outing with New Zealand. The all-rounder has impressed for the Wellington Firebirds and there is a chance he will make the first 11. It is, however, more likely that he will just be a squad member for the first test and may get a look in for the second.
- New Zealand last played test cricet in December 2020. They had a 2 match series against Pakistan winning 2-0.
- They were very impressive with the bat kokcing 659/6d in the second test to win the match by over an innings after bowling Pakistan out for 297 and 186. Main man Kane Williamson got 238 in that innings.
Head to head stats
England and New Zealand have not met since the November 2019 tour of New Zealand. New Zealand won 1-0 with one match drawn.
Match Prediction & Tips
Match Prediction: New Zealand to win at 21/10 or 6/4 with draw no bet*
This is a great price on a New Zealand team with top players present. England does have the home advantage as were really poor in the test series against India.
England is missing key players in Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer and this will be a blow to the team.
The Cricketics team thinks this will be a close match but the odds on New Zealand represents good value in the first test.
*Odds & Responsible gambling
All odds that appear are subject to change at any time. They are correct as stated at the time of publishing the article and are taken from various betting sites in India.
Please gamble responsibly, no tips or bets are guaranteed to win. Do not bet more than you can afford to lose. For help with problem gambling please visit gamblingtherapy.org.
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