NEWS
Follow UsOn December 4 (Wednesday), England named an unchanged playing XI for the second Test against hosts New Zealand. The Ben Stokes-led side, which won the first game of the three-match series in Christchurch by 8 wickets, remained unchanged with an eye on sealing the tie in the second game.
The second Test begins on December 6 (Friday) at the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
There were doubts over English skipper Stokes’ fitness, but they have now been swayed with him firmly leading the side despite him bowling 19.3 overs in the Christchurch game without any success.
Jacob Bethell, who made his Test debut and got going in the second innings (50* off 37), after having failed in the first (10 off 34), would continue to bat at number three while Shoaib Bashir would remain the spin-attacking option with the ball.
Brydon Carse, who picked up career-best figures of 6/42 in the second innings to go along with four wickets in the first and make it a memorable game by picking his first ever Test-fifer and 10-fer in the same match, was also not rested or rotated.
Harry Brook would remain in charge of the English batting lineup after his scintillating century in the first innings of the first Test.
It clearly shows that the English do not want to give any chance of a comeback to the hosts, who, despite looking good in patches, could not pounce on the chances that they got to get ahead in the game.
England's XI for the second Test
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (WK), Ben Stokes (c), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir
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