Big picture: Lord's finalists reunited

Forget the exploratory joustings that played out in a deeply peculiar T20I series, one in which England were a class apart until they were not, and in which New Zealand went from distracted cannon-fodder to destructive bomb-squaddies in the space of 48 hours. This time, things will be deadly serious from the get-go. Got it?

Though not, let's be clear, quite as serious as they'll be getting in Ahmedabad in little under a month's time, at the 2023 World Cup curtain-raiser. And certainly not a patch on the timeless drama that brought down the house at Lord's four years ago, on the last occasion that these two teams crossed swords in the 50-over arena.

Instead, we're braced for well, who rightly knows, if truth be told. After four years in mothballs, the ODI format is moving centre stage once again, braced for a comeback of Sinatra-esque proportions if the full hype of a World Cup in India is anything to go by. And yet, the journey that these two teams have taken in the interim rather epitomises the neglect that 50-over cricket has endured since that game of games. Can England and New Zealand reach an ODI cruising altitude from a standing start over the course of four games in eight days? That's what we're all itching to find out.

The ECB's dereliction of the format post-2019 has been uncompromising - not least with the birth of the Hundred relegating domestic 50-over cricket to a feeder competition. And yet, the lack of ODI game-time is far from a uniquely English issue.

What does any of this actually prove in this day and age, however? New Zealand's slow start to the T20I series could in part be attributed to their crazy, atomised build-up, with half the squad flying in from a low-key series in the UAE and the rest floating along via stints of varying lengths in the Hundred. But, equally, their flying finish showed how quickly professional outfits can find sufficient cohesion amid the madcap treadmill lifestyle.

Besides, as England's Test team have spent the past year and a bit proving with their Bazball revolution, who the hell cares about preparation these days anyway? Stokes, Root, Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Wood and Chris Woakes are among the senior players to have peaced out on Brendon McCullum's good vibes in recent months - be it sacking off warm-up matches for an extra round of golf, or breaking the pre-Test tension with a six-hitting competition on the practice strip.

And yet, none of that carefree attitude could ever have been allowed to take root had it not been trialled and approved in the course of the white-ball renaissance that preceded it. And so for England in particular, this series is about coming full circle - about forgetting all circumstance and just doubling down on the instinctual cricket that turned them into world-beaters in the first place.

As for New Zealand, they are the team from whom England took those initial cues back in 2015, and for all the over-riding sense that their own golden generation is now deep into transition, there's still a sufficient well of experience within that dressing-room for them to go deep once again.

Form guide

In the spotlight: Ben Stokes and Trent Boult

He was hardly the first in-demand cricketer to go freelance, but Trent Boult's decision to turn down a New Zealand central contract last year was a notable moment nonetheless. At the age of 34, he remains one of the pre-eminent left-arm seamers in the world, but this will be his first international outing in any format since the T20 World Cup in Australia last November. Since then, the selectors have been resolute in their desire to give chances to those who are willing to commit to the national side - leading to the slightly absurd scenario earlier this year, when a Test match against England took place in his home town of Mount Maunganui, with Boult kicking his heels a few miles down the road. But with the big show approaching, there's no thought of protocol holding sway any longer. His record across 99 career ODIs is outstanding, 187 wickets at 23.97, but in reaching the final in each of his two previous World Cup campaigns, Boult has racked up 39 wickets in 19 matches at 21.79. And in his infrequent 50-over appearances in the past four years, that average plummets to 16.21. He remains an essential weapon and a key reason to believe another deep World Cup run is within the team's grasp.

Team news: England bring out the big guns

England: (possible) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow / Dawid Malan, 3 Joe Root, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Moeen Ali / Brydon Carse, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Mark Wood / Gus Atkinson, 11 Adil Rashid

New Zealand: 1 Will Young, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Tom Latham (capt & wk), 6 Henry Nicholls, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Matt Henry, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult

Pitch and conditions

Quotes

"There are a lot of passionate All Blacks supporters in our dressing room so I'm sure that, if the time works, we'll have it on the TVs at some point."
Tom Latham, New Zealand's captain, expects the other World Cup in France to be a focal point for his team