London, Sep 13 (AP) New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl first against England at The Oval on Wednesday in the third match of their one-day international series that is tied at 1-1.

Jason Roy missed out again for England after having another back spasm hours before the match. The opener missed the first two games with the same problem and could now be a doubt for the Cricket World Cup starting in three weeks.

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Harry Brook, who is pushing to replace Roy or another batter in the World Cup squad, dropped out of the team to accommodate the return of Dawid Malan, who missed the second ODI after his wife gave birth to their son on Saturday. Chris Woakes came in for fellow seamer David Willey.

New Zealand left out spinner Mitchell Santner after he jarred his knee fielding in the second ODI, which England won by 79 runs to square the four-match series that ends at Lord's on Friday.

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Pacers Tim Southee and Matt Henry were rested, so Kyle Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson and Ben Lister came into a much-changed bowling attack. T20 specialist Finn Allen was dropped for Henry Nicholls, allowing Will Young to open the batting.

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Lineups:

England: Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Reece Topley.

New Zealand: Will Young, Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (captain), Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Kyle Jamieson, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult, Ben Lister. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)