According to the published cricket itinerary, the English team has decided to travel to New Zealand in order to play 2 test match series in the upcoming month of February 2023. New Zealand vs England test series 2023 will begin with the first test (a day-night test match)which will be held on the 16th of Feb 2023 at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui and then both teams will head over to Basin Reserve, Wellington in order to play the last test match of the NZ vs Eng test series 2023. Both teams will take this series seriously in order to optimize their condition to make a place in the final of the World Test Championship.
Kane Williamson will lead the hosting side whereas the English team will go to New Zealand under the captaincy of Ben Stokes. The English skipper, Ben Stokes is currently standing at the number 21st position whereas Kane Williamson is at the number 6th position in the ICC test player ranking. But England has got players like Joe Root who is currently the top test player in the world, so the competition is worth watching. Presently, New Zealand is in the 5th place whereas England holds the 4th position in the ICC test team ranking. Since the ranking won’t impact much on the result of the series due to the unpredictable and changing behavior of the NZ pitches.
In terms of head-to-head in test cricket, New Zealand and England faced each other for the first time in 1930, since then New Zealand and England met on the cricket field on 107 occasions where New Zealand won only 12 matches and lost 48 test matches. This shows that New Zealand has a very poor winning percentage against England and England has been dominating the Black Caps. Overall, New Zealand has appeared in 458 test matches in which they achieved victory in 109 matches and lost 181 matches. Despite New Zealand’s test losing percentage is more than the winning percentage, presently they are in the position of the top-class team in all formats of cricket.
In the running year of 2022, New Zealand appeared in 7 test matches till September, out of which they won only 2 matches and lost 5 matches. On the other hand, England has appeared in 1055 test matches, out of which they won 384 matches and faced defeat in 317 tests. In 2022, England played 12 test matches where they successfully dominated its opposition and won 6 matches but they also lost 3 matches while playing 3 matches as a draw. Most interestingly, New Zealand played the most test matches against England, so England is the biggest rival of New Zealand, and it would be interesting to watch how England will take over New Zealand on New Zealand’s ground.