Revealed: Why Lockie Ferguson isn't included in New Zealand's playing XI vs England in 1st match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

Kane Williamson, Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee and Ish Sodhi are not part of New Zealand's playing XI.

Lockie Ferguson will be missing out on the first match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 between England and New Zealand. This match is being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 5, 2023.

England are the defending champions of the World Cup and will be captained by Jos Buttler. They feature some of the most aggressive batters in world cricket today like Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler himself, Liam Livingstone, and Moeen Ali to name a few.

New Zealand are known to punch above their weight class in every World Cup tournament, as evident from reaching the finals of the last two editions and making it into the semis in the majority of the tournaments.

New Zealand are being captained by Tom Latham in this encounter as Kane Williamson is still recovering from his knee surgery. He had batted and fielded in both the warmup games for the Kiwis but was already ruled out of the opening match even before the tournament began.

Latham also revealed that pacer Lockie Ferguson is carrying a slight niggle and will not be playing against England.

“Going to have a bowl. Looks like a reasonably good surface. Hopefully later on it gets better to bat. The preparation has been great. Guys came together from different parts of the world a week ago. Unfortunately, Kane's not quite ready yet. Ferguson has got a bit of a niggle. Sodhi, Kane, Southee all miss out,” Latham said at the toss, quoted by Cricbuzz.

Ferguson had recently captained New Zealand to a 2-1 ODI series win in Bangladesh, their first in 15 years.

Ben Stokes misses out for England

On the other hand, Jos Buttler also said that ace all-rounder Ben Stokes will not be playing this match. The reason given was that the Durham all-rounder has a hip niggle and England will not be risking him so early in the tournament.

Buttler added that he would have bowled first as well. He added that the achievement four years ago was a big one, but this tournament is a fresh opportunity for England to write history.

He said: “Would've bowled first as well. Looks a really good wicket. Preparation has been okay. Had a good series against NZ at home. Very proud of the achievement four years ago. Ben's going to miss this game. Has a niggle with his hip. Guys missing out are Atkinson, Topley, Willey, and Stokes.”