Latham continues to deny Williamson a chance of facing, taking the first five of Atkinson's deliveries.

He takes two down past mid-on, before taking a single behind square to give his teammate one ball of the Surrey seamer.

Williamson defends that one.

Only one man has more than 1000 Test runs at this venue, and he's batting now: New Zealand's Tom Latham, who averages 49 here. He scored 252 here against Bangladesh in 2022.

An extremely familiar face comes to the middle as Kane Williamson arrives at first drop for New Zealand.

He returns to the side having missed the India series with a groin injury, but now replaces Will Young, who was player of the series on that tour with 244 runs.

The former skipper starts at the non-strikers' end, and doesn't get a chance to face here - Latham faces all six balls of the third over, and denies Woakes a second maiden, taking a knock-and-run single into the off side from the final ball.

Kieran Parmley
Cricviz analyst

Image source, Getty Images

The average wicket-taking length in the first 10 overs at Hagley Oval is 6.46 metres - eerily similar to Lord's average wicket-taking length of 6.54 metres, where both Woakes and Atkinson excelled during the summer. They should be primed for these conditions.

Gus Atkinson has the ball in hand at the other end - four slips for him.

His first ball has good carry, with stand-in keeper Ollie Pope taking the ball above his head.

He struggles initially with over-stepping, twice conceding no balls to bring New Zealand their first runs.

Devon Conway then squeezes two through point for the first runs off the bat.

Image source, Getty Images

Some news just dropping from New Zealand, where uncapped Durham wicketkeeper Ollie Robinson has been called up to the England squad following an injury to Jordan Cox.

Robinson, 25, will arrive on Saturday and could be in line for his debut in the second Test in Wellington next week.

Cox, who was due to make his own debut in Thursday's first Test in Christchurch, suffered a broken thumb batting in the nets during England's warm-up match in Queenstown at the weekend.

As a result, Ollie Pope is standing-in behind the stumps during the first Test, with 21-year-old Jacob Bethell making his debut and batting at number three.

Chris Woakes starts off with a maiden.

Latham inside edges the final delivery onto his pads, Woakes' arm shoots up then stalls mid-extension, an appeal dying in his throat.

He won't mind that though.

Short-ish from Woakes to start the series.

Latham fends the opening ball to gully.

Chris Woakes will open the bowling for England, he prepares his run-up as The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony blasts out across the ground.

New Zealand captain Tom Latham will face, with Devon Conway at the other end.

Time to get going.

Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport chief cricket writer in Christchurch

If you could design a Test venue from scratch, it would probably look a lot like Hagley Oval. A short walk from the city, grassbanks, in the middle of a public park. Gorgeous.

We're expecting the ground to be pretty full and there was pindrop silence when the captains were announced for the toss.

No real surprise that Ben Stokes chose to field first. It's England's preferred option and if the ball is going to move, it will do it early.

Time for the anthems.

There's bright blue skies in Christchurch with just a dusting of cloud.

We'll have temperatures in the mid-twenties through most of the Test, with the weather set fair.

England last visited New Zealand in February 2023 to play two Tests.

They won the first match in Mount Maunganui pretty comfortably, bowling the home side out for 126 as they won by 267 runs.

The second game in Wellington was about as close as it can get though. Following on, New Zealand scored 483 in the second innings to set their opponents 258 to win.

England fell just short, their final wicket falling on 256 as they lost by one run.

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

England have got a side with a guy who has never batted at three, batting at three. He doesn't bat there for his county.

Then someone keeping wicket who is fourth choice for Surrey. So to be first choice for England, that doesn't make any sense to me.

If you look at it statistically, that doesn't make sense to me.

If England win this game, do you stick with this side even though you've got a stronger wicketkeeper-batter in Ollie Robinson available?

It could get very complicated.

Steven Finn
Former England fast bowler on TNT Sports

Image source, Getty Images

Bethell will be glad England didn't lose the toss and he didn't have to go out and bat early on this green surface.

He's someone who exudes calmness, a quiet confidence. I interviewed him in the summer and he stated his desire to play Test cricket, which is brilliant for a young lad with an IPL contract.

He still has that burning desire to play Test cricket and bat up the order, clearly. He's got a great chance to show people that he's capable of doing that.

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

A lot of great players make their debut around 20 or 21. Steve Smith, Joe Root are a couple and Jacob Bethell is 21.

If you're good enough, you learn and become a great player. I hope it isn't too soon for him and playing so soon doesn't do any harm.

Kieran Parmley
Cricviz analyst

Image source, Getty Images

In 13 previous Tests only once has a side won the toss and elected to bat first at Hagley Oval, Ben Stokes very much sticking to type at the toss today.

Sides bowling first at Hagley Oval have eight wins, four losses, one draw, dating back to the first Test here in 2014.

Image source, Getty Images

New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir

Already the topic of much discussion, England give a debut to the 21-year-old prodigy Jacob Bethell and place him at number three as Ollie Pope drops to six while he keeps wicket.

New Zealand bring back star player Kane Williamson after he missed the India series through injury. Will Young misses out despite making twin half centuries in the final Test of the India series.

Seamer Nathan Smith makes his Test debut - he was playing for Worcestershire this summer.

New Zealand captain Tom Latham: "We were going to have a bowl first. Things can become easier after the first session. It's going to be a hot day, hopefully we can get past that and put pressure on later on.

"The public's got right behind us, which we appreciate. A series against England is perfect timing. It's a great time for New Zealand cricket at the moment, hopefully we can continue that momentum.

"Any time someone makes their debut is a special time. Nathan [Smith] has performed well for Wellington for a number of years and he fits our bowling nicely. We'll be right behind him."

England captain Ben Stokes: "The wicket generally gets better and better as cricket is played on it.

"There's a nice covering of grass on it so we'll get that new ball and try and get as much out of it as we can.

"Both teams try to take the game on, we're always looking to push the game forward and when you've got two teams in that same mindset, you're always going to get a good game.

"It's great that it's a three-game series this time round."

On Crowe-Thorpe Trophy: "It's an amazing thing to be playing for in this series. Two legends of the game, both for New Zealand and England cricket but also the game around the world. To be able to commemorate those two is very special."

On Jacob Bethell: "We had a bit of unfortunate stuff happen to Jordan Cox. It's never nice to see a young, talented lad get injured but it gives another a chance.

"Bethell has performed well for England in the last four or five months in the white-ball game so looking forward to him getting going this week."