Picking England and New Zealand's combined 11 for the 2023 World Cup ft. Jos Buttler and Trent Boult

The finalists of the 2019 World Cup, England and New Zealand, will kick off the 2023 edition on Thursday at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium.

That fabled final was called the peak of ODI cricket. Tellingly, since then, concerns over the format's relevance have only grown, so much so that the 2023 edition is being seen with the same puppy eyes, hoping for a revival.

With it, the teams have also gone through a mini overhaul. England have changed seven players from their team four years ago to maintain their aggressive play and perhaps take it to the next level. New Zealand have kept the same bowling lineup but moved on to a younger and more explosive batting set-up with six changes.

Below is an attempt at picking a balanced combined 11 out of both squads, factoring in recent form, conditions, and so on.

Openers: Devon Conway and Jonny Bairstow

Openers with more experience at the top of the order in each team - Devon Conway and Jonny Bairstow - will open for this combined 11. Both of them are much more experienced in playing in India than Finn Allen and Dawid Malan.

Conway scored a century against England in his last ODI series plus a 78 in the recent warm-up match against South Africa.

Bairstow's recent ODI form has been concerning, especially compared to Malan's since his promotion to the top of the order, but he brings know-how on batting in a high-pressure World Cup.

It also works better as a left-hand right-hand combination.

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Middle order: Joe Root, Daryl Mitchell, Jos Buttler (c&wk), and Liam Livingstone

Three England players make it to the middle order. With Kane Williamson absent for the first match due to injury, Joe Root was an obvious choice at No. 3.

Despite his bad recent form and a bit of a cloud regarding his relevance in a go-hard-don't-be-an-anchor team, Root is England's best player of spin and would come into the picture more and more as the pitches become difficult to bat on.

Daryl Mitchell versus Ben Stokes was a tough one. But it needs to be noted that this is not an all-rounder duel; it's an all-rounder versus a specialist batter in Stokes, who hasn't bowled in ages and is unlikely to do so in this World Cup.

Stokes was magnificent against New Zealand with an 182 and a 52 but he hasn't played any more ODIs in over a year. Mitchell, on the other hand, has three centuries from 16 matches at an average of 43.47, in 2023 and looks in great form. He has also picked up nine wickets at 21.33. Stokes is also more injury-prone.

Both are fluent against spin and can change gears at will but Mitchell provides trust of consistency apart from another bowling option.

Nothing much separates Jos Buttler and Tom Latham in terms of form and skill. Both have often been the saviors of their team and would probably do the same in India. However, Buttler's extensive experience of playing and dominating the IPL and his ability to willfully change the game sets him slightly apart from Latham.

Buttler will also take the captaincy armband as well as the wicketkeeping gloves.

Liam Livingstone and Glenn Phillips play identical roles in their respective teams. Both are bonafide finishers who can also bowl a bit of spin when needed. Livingstone has been more successful in India but Phillips adds a bit more value with his fielding. Both have come to the World Cup having scored crucial runs.

This is one of those choices where both teams will be happy to take either of them. We are going for Livingstone only because he adds just that one percent extra explosivity to this team. Phillips thus becomes one of the best 12th men for a team.

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All-rounders: Mitchell Santner and Chris Woakes

Moeen Ali has an underwhelming record in ODIs for England so Mitchell Santner gets an easy nod ahead of him.

Santner has grown to be an excellent middle-over operator. The left-arm finger spinner brings the wicket-taking ability of a wrist spinner (he has at least one wicket in all of his last six white-ball matches) with his ingenuity while maintaining a career economy rate of less than five.

Chris Woakes makes the cut over Jimmy Neesham and even Mark Chapman too. Both England and New Zealand like to set up with three fast bowlers and Woakes provides that. He, like Santner, is a pretty handy batter at number eight and seven.

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Bowlers: Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, and Trent Boult

Mark Wood and Trent Boult will take precedence over Lockie Ferguson and Reece Topley, respectively. Wood and Ferguson offer similar skills but the former has been consistently better in terms of sheer wicket-taking form of late.

Boult offers more pace, experience of playing in India, and variety to this attack than the other new-ball bowlers Topley (who is also coming after an injury) and Matt Henry. Boult and Woakes would form a lethal new-ball pair with Wood being the perfect middle-overs enforcer.

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid rounds this team off. We have more than enough batting options (even Wood can tonk the ball big) to afford Rashid over Rachin Ravindra. Rashid was England's best bowler when they won the 2022 T20 World Cup.

He doesn't have a shining, magnificent record in India or even ODIs overall but could certainly pick up a handful of wickets in the middle overs.