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Mumbai: New Zealand have used 11 different players between No. 5 and 7 since the 2015 World Cup. India, in the same period, have tried just as many players at No. 4 alone.
Shift to home conditions and India’s record is equally impressive. Since the 2009-10 series against Australia, India have lost just two of 16 bilateral series played at home. These defeats have come against Pakistan and South Africa. But, that record is expected to stay safe for the year with series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the horizon.
For the New Zealand batsmen the challenge from the get go in the first ODI in Mumbai will be posed by the spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Kiwi batsman Tom Latham acknowledged the difficulty that they could pose – much similar to what Australia faced and failed to successfully circumvent.
For India, things are not entirely about Virat Kohli, who didn’t go all guns blazing against Australia and Shikhar Dhawan didn’t play all games either. But even as the duo didn’t star, one Mumbaikar did. Rohit Sharma scored 296 runs top score in the series including a century and two fifties at an average just below 60.
Ajinkya Rahane too fared well with 244 runs which included four half centuries. He offers the option to bat at multiple slots in the side including as an opener – something Kohli acknowledged in the pre-match press conference.
Hardik Pandya has been the star of Indian team in the past two series – debuted in Tests in Sri Lanka and has become a vital cog in the limited overs too. He and MS Dhoni played vital role in two ODIs to keep Australia at bay and take India towards the winning line.
New Zealanders will pin their hopes on the senior members in the batting department to give them some hope.
Former skipper Ross Taylor, who scored a cracking century at the Brabourne Stadium against the Indian Board President’s XI in their second practice game is an important member in that plan as are openers Martin Guptill and captain Kane Williamson. Tom Latham, too, got things underway brightly with a century in the practice game.
Teams from
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips (wk), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, George Worker and Ish Sodhi.
Pitch and conditions
Spin, bounce, runs, thrill, and more on offer at Wankhede Stadium. 31 degrees Celsius, 76% humidity, partly cloudly but no rain expected.
Stats and trivia
Not once have India scored in excess of 300 runs in the 17 ODIs they played at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
If India win 3-0, and they are highly expected to, they would edge the Proteas in the charts.
Rohit needs 98 runs to become the second batsman after Virat Kohli to reach 1000 ODI runs in 2017
Match facts
Sunday October 22, 2017 (d/n)
Start time 1330 local (0800 GMT)
