Lords hosts the first test between England and New Zealand, the game gets under way on Thursday and we take a look at the squads, form and a number of options available to punters.
This is a 3 match series with The Oval hosting the second test and Trent Bridge Nottingham the third and we begin with the squads.
England: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, Gus Atkinson, Sonny Baker, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Ben Duckett, Matthew Fisher, Emilio Gay, James Rew, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue
New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Kane Williamson
Recent Form:
England
England’s last action in the test match format came in the Ashes in Australia at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026 and they lost that series 4-1 with their sole win coming in the fourth test when the series was already settled.
England hosted India in a 5 match series in June / July last year and it turned out to be a thriller which was drawn 2-2 with 1 draw.
In New Zealand in Nov / Dec 2024 England won a 3 match series 2-1.
New Zealand
Just prior to this series New Zealand were in Ireland for a one off test which they won by an innings and 79 runs. Blundell (186) and Ravindra (121) starred in their total of 490/8, Nathan Smith took 6 wickets in Ireland’s first innings reply of 179 all out and Blair Tickner took 5 in Ireland’s second innings of 232 all out.
In December 2025 New Zealand won a 3 match home series against West Indies 2-0.
The Venue, Lords, London
Over the course of the last 5 years England have played 9 test matches at Lords, winning 5, losing 3 and drawing 1.
The most recent Lords test (and the only one that was staged here in 2025 saw England (387 and 192) beat India (387 and 170) by 22 runs
The Lords England v New Zealand test in June 2022 saw England (141 and 279/5 beat New Zealand (132 and 285) by 5 wickets.
Click Here For The Lords Weather Forecast
1st Test Betting
Prices quoted from Sportingbet are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.
England are 7/10 to win the first test with a draw at 17/4 and New Zealand can be backed at 21/10
Price boosts include Joe Root to be top England run scorer in the first innings at 100/30 (from 11/4)
Kane Williamson to be top New Zealand run scorer in the first innings at 4/1 (from 100/30)
The Verdict
Seems an age ago we last covered a test match on this website and this should be competitive, perhaps even more so than the match result betting suggests.
I’m going to side with Ravindra to score a 50 in New Zealand’s first knock and for England Harry Brook gets the vote to do likewise.
Bets: 1st innings to score a 50 Harry Brook? Yes at 18/10 with Sportingbet
1st innings to score a 50 Rachin Ravindra? Yes at 12/5 with Sportingbet