Will apologise to Kane for rest of my life: Stokes

Defending champions England and New Zealand, the two finalists of a blockbuster 2019 World Cup, are having to deal with injury issues as they prepare to take the field in the 2023 World Cup opener at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad today.
England star Ben Stokes could miss the game against New Zealand due to a hip injury with captain Jos Buttler admitting Wednesday "it's not the time to take risks".
"He (Stokes) has got a slight niggle in his hip. Fingers crossed that it'll be good news for us," Buttler told reporters.
He added: "It's not the time to take big risks at the start of the tournament. It's going to be a long tournament."
Harry Brook could be included in the team for his seventh ODI since his 50-over debut in January if Stokes misses out.
While England will be waiting on Stokes, the Kiwis will definitely be without two of their key starters.
New Zealand's stand-in skipper Tom Latham confirmed that pacer Tim Southee is set to miss today's game and potentially some of the following matches due to an injured thumb while it was already declared earlier that the Kiwis' regular skipper Kane Williamson would miss the game due to a knee injury.
Williamson played the team's first warm-up purely as a batsman and then fielded as well in the second warm-up, but Southee is still waiting to get into action.
"No Kane and no Tim as well," Latham told reporters ahead of the opener.
"He (Southee) is unavailable for selection. He is recovering nicely, it has been nearly two weeks post-surgery, so fingers crossed he keeps recovering.
"It's a bit of a day-by-day process. But fingers crossed he'll be available sooner rather than later as well."
The Kiwis are still hunting for their first World Cup title after making eight semifinal appearances in 12 editions and both finals in the last two editions.
They come into the tournament as a strong candidate to go all the way but most pundits are still handing the favourites tag to either India or England.

The concept is at once simple and mindbending.

Pakistan arrive at Lord’s for their match against Bangladesh knowing exactly what they must do to reach the last four of the World Cup. The problem is the task is enough to make Hercules baulk.

Thanks to a combination of England’s wet June, their meagre early-tournament displays and cricket’s reluctant bedfellow -- net run rate -- Sarfraz Ahmed and Co know that a win alone will not take them past New Zealand and into the knockout rounds.

With nine points to their name after eight matches, Pakistan can only draw level with the Kiwis and, thanks mainly to their implosion against West Indies five weeks ago, they are left needing a miracle margin of victory.

Let’s think about the mathematics for a second: Sarfraz and his team have to overturn a net run rate deficit of 0.967, and to do so requires a win the likes of which the game has never seen.

Should they rack up 350 -- and bear in mind they have only surpassed that mark 10 times in 924 one-day internationals since 1973 -- they would need to skittle Bangladesh out for 38 or fewer in order to progress.

What if they gave a little extra leeway for the Tigers to score a few more runs -- a shrewd suggestion, given Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has made at least 41 in every single innings in this World Cup?

Well, if Pakistan hit 400, they could afford to concede 86 with the ball in response and still go through.

Possible? Maybe. There is power at the top of the Pakistani order -- Fakhar Zaman has an ODI double century, after all. But it should be noted that the country has never compiled a score of 400 or more in their one-day international history, their best being the 399 for 1 against Zimbabwe in which Fakhar made his unbeaten 210.

Only one team, coincidentally Zimbabwe, have been dismissed for an ODI total below 80 more times than Bangladesh’s eight, but the most recent instance was in 2014 and they have not returned a score below 200 in any innings this year.

A step further, then. Should Pakistan manage 450 or more -- keep in mind the highest ODI total recorded at Lord’s is 334 -- then they would have to rattle through Bangladesh for a maximum of 129.

It is an unfortunate scenario for Pakistan, who at times in this tournament have played courageous, fearless, elegant cricket, who beat New Zealand quite comfortably, who held off the charge of England at their favourite hunting ground Trent Bridge.

That they have had to resort to cheering for old enemy India and then the Blackcaps is effectively a situation of their own making - that abject failure against the short ball in their opening game against West Indies saw their net run rate plummet to -5.802, the sort of depths you would generally associate with goblin sharks and enemies of organised crime, and, though performances have steadily improved, Pakistan have not dished out the sort of thrashing they needed to balance the books.

The mythical parallels with 1992 have evaporated, the conspiracy theories abound and now their fans must pray for something truly extraordinary to take place at the Home of Cricket on Friday.

Of course, the toss of a coin could render even those dreams redundant.

If Pakistan lose the toss and Bangladesh decide to bat first, then Pakistan will have no chance of making it through.

FACTS

Tamim Iqbal has scored 676 runs -- the most by any batsman in either sides’ current World Cup squad -- in the 16 matches he played against Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez is the highest run-getter in the current Pakistan squad. The all-rounder has amassed 351 runs in the 14 matches he played against Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has scalped 21 wickets -- the most by any player among the two sides’ current World Cup squad -- in the 15 matches he played against Pakistan.

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal’s 132 off 135 balls, which came against Pakistan back in 2015 in Mirpur, remains the highest individual score by any player in either sides’ current World Cup squad.

None of the players in the current Pakistan squad have scored a hundred against Bangladesh in ODIs so far. Mohammad Hafeez’s 89 is the highest by any current Pakistani player against the Tigers.

Tamim Iqbal has a batting average of 45.07 -- the highest by any player of the two sides’ current World squad -- against Pakistan

England must get past in-form New Zealand on Tuesday if they are to get their Twenty20 World Cup campaign back on track but their hopes of reaching the semifinals would also suffer a heavy blow if the Brisbane weather refuses to play ball.

England are in a precarious position after their rain-hit defeat to Ireland and with last week's eagerly-anticipated encounter with champions Australia abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Rain is again forecast for Tuesday and another washout would mean England could finish on a maximum of six points in Group 1 provided they beat Sri Lanka in their final game on Saturday -- a tally that would likely see them fail to advance.

"It would be nice to get the full 40 overs in, so keep our fingers crossed that we get the right conditions to be able to do that," England assistant coach Paul Collingwood said.

"In World Cups you want to see ... the best sides competing against each other in an equal game. Hopefully tomorrow the rain stays away and we can manage to do that."

If 2010 champions England take four points from their last two games, Jos Buttler's side could finish tied with New Zealand and Australia, which would mean net run rate would determine the top two.

Black Caps bowler Lockie Ferguson said he expected England to "come out hot" in search of a win but backed his team to see off the challenge and take a big step towards the semifinals.

"We need to come out with our own brand of aggressive play and that's not to say that's it's anything different to what we have done ... we have a different way of going about that," Ferguson said.

"But the way Tim Southee and Trent Boult have started us off has put us a great foot forward in our first two games, so from that point of view, nothing needs to change too much, and we need to adjust to the conditions on the day."

In Tuesday's other Super 12 match, Afghanistan play 2014 champions Sri Lanka, who must win both their games and hope other results go their way to reach the last-four stage.