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Hyderabad: India were gearing for life without retired batting stars Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman as they begin a two-Test series against New Zealand in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Dravid bid farewell in March and Laxman called it quits last Saturday, leaving Sachin Tendulkar the only surviving veteran of the golden generation of Indian batsman that included Sourav Ganguly.
The main task for India in the busy home season that also features four Tests each against England and Australia is to find replacements for Dravid and Laxman, who had a combined tally of 22,069 Test runs in 298 matches.
The batsmen in contention for the two vacant slots, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suresh Raina and Subramaniam Badrinath, have a combined tally of just 20 Tests. Ajinkya Rahane has yet to debut in the five-day game.
India will also miss Dravid and Laxman in the slips. Both were gifted with safe hands with Dravid taking a Test record 210 catches and Laxman 135.
"It will be tough to replace Rahul and Laxman not only as batsmen, but also as slip catchers," Tendulkar said ahead of the first Test.
The series against eighth-ranked New Zealand provides the hosts an opportunity to return to winning ways ahead of tougher assignments against England and Australia.
India lost much of their reputation in the past 12 months and the number one ranking when they crashed to eight successive overseas Test defeats, four each in England and Australia.
India have the resources to start the season on a winning note, with openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, and middle-order batsmen Tendulkar and Virat Kohli all capable of putting pressure on the opposition.
In-form Kohli, who has played only eight Tests, has been growing in confidence since hammering his maiden Test century against Australia at Adelaide this January.
India have effective spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha to test the touring batsmen, the duo having played major roles in their team's victory in the last home series against the West Indies in November, 2011.
India will be delighted that New Zealand are without their match-winning spinner Daniel Vettori for the two Tests due to an injury.
The Black Caps need to regroup and put in an improved showing to avoid a second successive Test series defeat, having recently lost both Tests in the West Indies.
With such a backdrop and with not a particularly great history to fall back on, what can this present New Zealand side do differently that would change their destiny? They have made a positive statement at the start of the series by confirming that Brendon McCullum would open the innings along with Martin Guptill.
Ross Taylor and the talented Kane Williamson would provide the backbone to the middle-order. Chris Martin who has troubled the famed Indian batting line-up on previous tours will lead the seam attack. Also, they have re-called James Franklin, who, if plays to his potential, could fill the role of that elusive all-rounder.
Teams from
India: MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane
New Zealand: Ross Taylor (captain), Brendon McCullum, BJ Watling (wk), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Neil Wagner, Kruger van Wyk (wk), James Franklin, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Doug Bracewell, Chris Martin, Daniel Flynn, Tarun Nethula, Jeetan Patel
Stats & trivia
Match facts
August 23-27, 2012
Start time 09:30 local (04:00 GMT)
