New Zealand vs England Second T20 International Predictions & Betting Tips (2025)

England and New Zealand play their second T20 on Monday in Christchurch. Harry Brook’s team are adamant they are fully focused on this series, despite the distraction of the Ashes war of words.

New Zealand are without Kane Williamson for this series, though the star batter is likely to return for the ODIs. England have a handful of their Test players available, but took the opportunity to rest Gus Atkinson, Ben Duckett, and Jofra Archer before this winter’s showpiece series in Australia.

The cricket betting markets have narrowly favoured England for this series. Brook’s tenure as white-ball captaincy has been off to a patchy start, but this is a very strong batting lineup on paper, and the tourists have excellent spin options at their disposal in Adil Rashid, Jacob Bethell, Liam Dawson, and Rehan Ahmed.

Two-Paced Pitch

The Christchurch surface looked hard to bat on in the series opener. Sam Curran’s 35-ball 49 took England to a competitive score of 153, but it was a two-paced pitch, with slower balls into the surface the way to go.

The tourists had to recover from 81-5 off 11.3 overs. Jos Buttler and Curran were the only players to score more than 20, and Buttler’s 29 came at a relatively snail-paced 116-strike rate. Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, and Jordan Cox also struggled to get going.

There’s no reason to expect a quicker pitch on Monday. Lots of cutters will be bowled, and spinners could be hard to get away, as the economical spells of Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell showed in game one.

Adaptation Required

Slower pitches tend to favour technicians and improvisers. Phil Salt, for instance, is at his best when the ball is coming on. Curran rode his luck in his 49 on Saturday morning, but he also plays the kind of unusual shots that are required when slower balls are bowled into the middle of the pitch.

Rachin Ravindra is always worth consideration as the Kiwis’ top batter, but these conditions are likely to favour his style of play. For England, Harry Brook hit a couple of sixes en route to 20 off 14 balls and has happy memories of playing in New Zealand across formats.

Spin is Key

Bethell has a role to play as England’s sixth bowler in the second match of this series. He’s been used sparingly as a bowler in his T20 international career to date, but he’s in play to bowl three or four overs of left-arm darts.

The pace variations of Liam Dawson are likely to throw off the timing of the New Zealand batting order. We also like the value on Santner as New Zealand’s top bowler if England try to put their foot down in the middle overs.

*Odds subject to change – prices accurate at the time of writing*