Toss England chose to bat vs New Zealand
Atkinson was unknown to many outside his county, Surrey, at the start of the summer but has shot up the pecking order with a series of impressive displays, including in the Hundred for champions, Oval Invincbles, for whom he was clocked at 95mph/152kph.
“Really excited for him to get this chance,” Jos Buttler said. “He’s got some great attributes, not expecting too much just backing him to do his thing. He’s got extra pace, and pace can create wickets. Not too worried about runs, guys who can bowl fast can sometimes leak runs but hopefully he’ll create some chances for us.”
New Zealand were unchanged, with Tim Southee admitting he too would have preferred to bowl first – and calling for his side to put on a better showing after being swept aside in the first match of four.
“Looks a pretty good surface so hopefully we can bowl well and restrict them to a decent score,” he said. “New surface, new ground, we have to adapt quickly.”
England 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Will Jacks, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Gus Atkinson
New Zealand 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Mark Chapman, 6 Daryl Mitchell, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Adam Milne, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Lockie Ferguson