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Ahmedabad: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat against New Zealand in the first Test of the three-match Test series at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Dhoni finally managed to win the toss in his tenth attempt after losing nine tosses in a row. The Motrea crowd gave him huge cheer after he won the toss.
VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir, who were not the part of India's last Test due to injuries, made their return into the final eleven replacing Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara.
However, seamer S Sreesanth kept his place in the playing eleven ahead of Ishant Sharma, who also missed the last Test due to injury.
On the other hand Kane Williamson and Hamish Bennett will make their Test debut for New Zealand.
Fresh from their 2-0 triumph over Australia, a full-strength India go into a three-Test rubber against New Zealand with the focus on Sachin Tendulkar who just needs one more century to record an amazing feat of 50 Test tons.
The hosts, the world's number one ranked team, are on a phenomenal run in Test cricket, especially at home, and have lost only to South Africa (twice) since the beginning of 2008 on home soil.
India have, significantly, won five of their last six Test matches at home while the Daniel Vettori-led Kiwis have arrived from a humiliating 4-0 ODI series loss to Bangladesh in the latter's territory.
It would, therefore, need a superhuman effort from New Zealand to halt the rampaging Indian batting line up, in which Sachin Tendulkar is also in prime form, from batting them out of the contest.
The 37-year-old champion cricketer has accumulated a staggering 1270 runs from his last nine Tests (15 innings), embellished by six three-figure knocks that includes two double hundreds, for a Bradmanesque average of 97.69, a feat that fetched him this year's ICC Cricketer of the Year honour.
He also scored his maiden double ton at the Motera ground, in 1999 and against the same opposition. The Indians fans will be hoping that his 50th Test century comes at Sardar Patel stadium.
While Tendulkar is the biggest threat with his ability to adapt to any situation and any format of the game, his protégé Virender Sehwag also stands tall with his capacity to take the rival attack by the scruff and demoralise the bowling.
The return of VVS Laxman, who missed the previous match that India played at Bangalore against Australia because of a back problem, has bolstered the already strong batting which has even made light of the indifferent form of another mainstay Rahul Dravid since the tour to Sri Lanka.
Also returning to the Indian ranks to add meat to the side is opener Gautam Gambhir.
In the previous Test at this venue, he rescued India from a precarious 38/4 against Sri Lanka last November with his back-to-the-wall 177. He also scored a double hundred and a half-century when last playing against New Zealand at the Motera ground seven years ago.
The visitors, on the contrary, are in disarray with even their opening combination not yet settled.
Vettori, in his 100th Test for his country, and the other tour selectors have to decide whether to play the hard-hitting Brendon McCullum as an opener or at no. 3.
McCullum, who has left the wicket keeping duties to colleague Gareth Hopkins in the series, has the ability to take away the game like Sehwag does for India, but has not shown the consistency of the Indian blaster.
History is also against the Kiwis who have not won a Test match in India since the great Richard Hadlee and off spinner John Bracewell took 18 wickets in the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai to pilot them to a 136-run victory in November, 1988.
Since then New Zealand have lost three games on Indian soil and drawn six, including both times they played here previously - in 1999 and 2003.
Only Vettori has survived from the 2003 squad that drew here which puts an enormous task on the Kiwis to adapt themselves to the pitch and weather conditions here even without the benefit of a warm-up game.
Tall right-hander Chris Martin, who has had a poor year so far, would be spearheading the pace attack with the benefit of having played 56 Tests and taken 187 wickets, but the others in the fast bowling battery are very inexperienced.
In spin, New Zealand will be well-served by captain Vettori and Jeetan Patel, the off-spinner, who would find the Indian wickets very conducive to bowl on.
The batting also wears a thin look and has also an unsettled appearance at the top which is the reason the visitors are to play McCullum, with 52 Tests under his belt at an average of just under 35, in either the opening slot or at number 3.
Ross Taylor and the beefy Jesse Ryder have the ability to play attractively, but how good they are when putting their heads down and grafting for runs in Indian conditions would be only known as the series progresses.
Teams
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt., wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha and S Sreesanth.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Kane Williamson, Chris Martin, Tim McIntosh, Jeetan Patel, Bradley John Watling and Hamish Bennett.
