Colombo, February 26 New Zealand spinners, led by their mercurial captain Mitchell Santner, will pose some tough questions to an English lineup spearheaded by the aggressive Harry Brook when the two sides clash in a Super Eight game of the T20 World Cup here on Friday.
The match is of greater significance for the Black Caps as they aim to secure a semi-final spot, while England have already qualified for the quarter-finals after winning two consecutive matches.
The impressive 61-run victory over Sri Lanka has boosted New Zealand's net run-rate to +3.050, and to ensure their progress, the Kiwis need to avoid a heavy defeat.
Following their defeat to England, Pakistan have a net run-rate of -0.461, and they will need New Zealand to lose badly, as well as beat Sri Lanka by a significant margin, to surpass the Black Caps' net run-rate.
New Zealand have shown that they are comfortable playing against multiple spinners, as demonstrated by their victory over Sri Lanka. They actually defeated the hosts in their own game.
While Brook and Will Jacks have been effective against players like Saim Ayub, Mohammed Nawaz, and Shadab Khan, New Zealand's Santner, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, and Cole McConchie could prove to be more effective on the slightly slower Premadasa pitch compared to Pallekele.
Brook is in good form, as evidenced by his match-winning century against Pakistan, and the team will expect veteran Jos Buttler to step up after a relatively quiet tournament. A strong start from Buttler will put England in a strong position.
On the other end, Jacks' off-spin and Liam Dawson's left-arm spin could also pose a challenge for the Kiwis.
At Premadasa, a score in the range of 165 to 175 can be considered a winning score, especially if the spinners are in operation.
"You're always confident going into these matches, especially when you know what the pitch is going to be like, but I think it would be foolish to underestimate England at any point," Black Caps all-rounder Rachin Ravindra said after his match-winning performance against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
"They are obviously a very strong team, and they have shown this in their bowling, and how well they have been bowling. They have world-class batters throughout their batting order. So, it's nothing like that," he added.
However, he was well aware that Friday is a new day, and it will be a new challenge for the New Zealand team.
"Obviously, we will take confidence from today and move forward, but we will realize that in two days, it will be a different challenge, and hopefully, we will be up to it," Rachin said.
Squads:
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England: Harry Brook (captain), Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Phil Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jamie Overton, Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Josh Tongue, Luke Wood
New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (captain), Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Cole McConchie, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Rachin Ravindra, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi.
Match Starts: 7 pm.
