England can beat New Zealand in ODI series says Angus Fraser
Wednesday 3 June 2015 13:11, UK
Selector Angus Fraser believes England have the ability to win the forthcoming one-day series against New Zealand, who just a few months ago reached the final of the World Cup.
The Kiwis are currently third in the World ODI Ranking - behind Australia and India - and are expected to make light work of England in this month's five-match series.
When the teams last met at Wellington during the World Cup, England were bowled out for just 123 as New Zealand romped home by eight wickets with more than 37 overs to spare.
But Fraser is confident England can prosper on home soil, telling Sky Sports News HQ: "I expect England to win. We have some great cricketers. We’ve had a fascinating Test series against New Zealand when no one gave us a chance.
"It was a fair result. And I hope England to be competitive in the one-day series too."
Fraser, who is also director of cricket at Middlesex, is looking forward to seeing how England’s young squad will perform in the forthcoming series.
James Anderson, Ian Bell and Stuart Broad are not included with opportunities offered to Sam Billings, Adil Rashid, James Taylor, David Willey and Mark Wood.
Regarding the new-look team, Fraser added: "We want to look forward. We had a disappointing winter, and World Cup, so we’re looking at some of the players who have performed in county cricket and give them experience.
"It’s a fresh young side and we’ll see how they perform. We looked at the World Cup to see how the sides are playing in this day and age, and it’s been labelled against England that maybe we’ve had a different attitude than we should have had.
"The players we’ve picked will certainly play a more aggressive form of cricket than we’ve seen in recent times."
However, Fraser says this does not signal the end of the one-day careers of Anderson, Bell and Broad, stressing: "No it doesn’t. We want to have a look at these players and see what the likes of Finn, Plunkett and Jordan can produce over the next few weeks."
As for keeping Eoin Morgan skipper of the 50-over team, Fraser went on: "It’s right Eoin remains captain. He was made captain close to the World Cup so to take that away from him would not have been right.
"He’s a good captain, calm, assured, and has a good deal of one-day experience."
The five-match series between England and New Zealand runs from June 9-20, with the opener at Edgbaston next Tuesday. Watch all five on Sky Sports.
