England came out on top after New Zealand won the second Test

WELLINGTON: New Zealand captain Tim Southee won the coin toss and opted to play in the second Test against England at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Friday.

The Black Caps made two changes from the side which lost last week’s first Test by 267 points with Will Young and Matt Henry for Scott Kuggeleijn and Blair Tickner.

Henry returns after failing the first test for the birth of his child.

The in-form England, who have won ten of their last 11 Tests, have remained with the same team that won the opener of the two-match series at Mount Maunganui.

Southee hopes its designers will take advantage of the new box office early.

“I hope there’s some life in it, but it’s generally a good cricketing surface,” Southee said.

New Zealand enters with three designers – Southee, Henry and Neil Wagner alongside the versatile Michael Bracewell.

England skipper Ben Stokes will hope his side continue their rich vein of form.

He said his team plan to stick to the “same processes, when we feel it’s time to put New Zealand under pressure we’ll try to do that”.

He added: “The pitch will play differently to last week, (so we will) identify scoring options as we did last week.”

Teams

New Zealand: Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Will Young, Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Michael Bracewell, Neil Wagner, Tim Southee (captain), Matt Henry.

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Foakes, Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson.

Referees: Chris Gaffaney (NZL), Rod Tucker (AUS)

The television fulfills: Aleem Dar (PAK)

Match referee: David Boon (Australia)