England to bowl first in second New Zealand Test

HAMILTON: England captain Joe Root won the toss and followed the standard practice at Hamilton´s Seddon Park and opted to bowl first in the second Test against New Zealand on Friday.

"History suggests here it generally gets better to bat on, so it´s a chance to exploit the surface early on," Root said, with England including five seamers and no spinner in their line up.

"Everyone (has) to be flat out each time they bowl."

England have made two changes with Chris Woakes replacing spinner Jack Leach while Zak Crawley comes in for the injured Jos Buttler with Ollie Pope taking over the wicketkeeping duties for only the sixth time in a first-class match.

New Zealand have also made two changes, both injury enforced, with Daryl Mitchell in for Colin de Grandhomme while Matt Henry was preferred over Lockie Ferguson to replace Trent Boult.

"There is some grass (on the wicket). No doubt it will do a little bit early on as it usually does here so it´s important we get through those periods and build some partnerships," said New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson.

After being thoroughly outplayed in the first Test, England need to win to square the two Test series.

They have not won in New Zealand or Australia in 18 Tests since Perth nine years ago.

New Zealand: Tom Latham, Jeet Raval, Kane Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner.

England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Joe Denly, Joe Root (capt), Ben Stokes, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad.

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI), Paul Wilson (AUS)

TV Umpire Bruce Oxenford (AUS)

Match Referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)