England won the toss, and New Zealand decided to bat.
On a hot September day in Birmingham, New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat first. Tim Southee was looking for a reaction from his team after losing the first two games.
Adam Milne and Lockie Ferguson were replaced by Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry, who won the player of the match award in the T20 Blast final at Edgbaston in July. The hosts kept the same batting line-up that was blown apart for 103 in the second T20I at Old Trafford on Friday.
Jos Buttler said that, like him, he would have liked to bat on a dry field in late summer. England also changed up their lineup by putting back Luke Wood after he missed the second game and bringing in Chris Jordan, who is their most experienced seamer in this format but only joined the team because John Turner and Josh Tongue, who were supposed to make their debuts, got hurt.
Sam Curran made room for Brydon Carse, who made his debut in the first game at Chester-le-Street and has since been added to England’s ODI team.
England is up 2-0 because they won by seven wickets and 95 runs. Fast bowler Gus Atkinson, another new face, had the best T20I debut numbers for an Englishman in Manchester.
England: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Will Jacks, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Harry Brook, 5 Jos Buttler (captain and wicketkeeper), 6 Ali Moeen, 7 Liam 8 Christopher Jordan, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Luke Wood, and 11 Gus Atkinson
New Zealand: 1st Devon Conway, 2nd Finn Allen, 3rd Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Mark Chapman, 5 Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Daryl Mitchell, 8, Ish Sodhi, 9, Tim Southee, 10, Matt Henry, 11.
