Colombo: New Zealand's captain Mitchell Santner celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Sri Lanka's Kamindu Mendis during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8 Group 2 match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday, February 25, 2026. (Photo: IANS/Biplab Banerjee)
Colombo, February 27 New Zealand will face England on Friday in the T20 World Cup 2026. The match is being played at the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium. New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bat first.
New Zealand has made no changes to its playing XI. England, meanwhile, has made one change to its final XI, replacing Jamie Overton with Rehan Ahmed.
After winning the toss, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said, “We want to bat first. If you want to win the World Cup, you have to win matches. We know what we need to do on this wicket. We haven’t made any changes to our playing XI.”
After losing the toss, English captain Harry Brook said, “We would have batted first if we had won the toss. New Zealand is a strong team, and we will try to defeat them in this match. If we succeed in doing so, it would be great. I think I will bat at number three. Jamie Overton is out, and Rehan Ahmed is playing in his place.”
New Zealand must win against England at all costs to secure a place in the semi-finals. New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by 61 runs in their last Super 8 round match. Tim Seifert has been in good form with the bat. Seifert has scored 181 runs in five matches so far, playing at a strike rate of 161. Meanwhile, Rachin Ravindra has been making significant contributions with both bat and ball.
Against Sri Lanka, Rachin scored 32 runs and took four wickets for 27 runs in his four-over spell. Meanwhile, Matt Henry’s performance with the ball was excellent in the last match, taking two wickets for just 3 runs.
On the other hand, England have already qualified for the semi-finals. The team has won both of their Super 8 matches so far. In the last match against Pakistan, captain Harry Brook performed brilliantly, scoring a century. Brook also became the first captain to score a century in T20 World Cup history.
On the bowling front, the team’s spinners are consistently performing well. Liam Dawson took three wickets against Sri Lanka, while Adil Rashid has been successful in controlling the runs in the middle overs and taking wickets. Jofra Archer is also taking wickets with the new ball.
England’s playing XI: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Harry Brook (captain), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.
New Zealand’s playing XI: Tim Seifert (wicketkeeper), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner (captain), Cole McConchie, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson.
