India Elect to Bowl As Zaheer, McCullum Return

Vadodara: Indian skipper Gautam Gambhir won the toss and opted to field against New Zealand in the third one-day international of the five-match ODI series at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara.

India have made two changes to their side with paceman Zaheer Khan coming in place of S Sreesanth and Ravindra Jadeja taking place of Suresh Raina.

New Zealand line-up has been bolstered by comeback man Brendon McCullum, who takes place of indisposed Jamie How. Paceman James Franklin replaces Tim Southee.

Bolstered by the return of pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, India would look to stamp their superiority and clinch the five-match ODI series against New Zealand with a third straight victory on Saturday.

A series triumph would not only be a morale boost for India ahead of the forthcoming tour of South Africa and the World Cup after that but would also keep the team entrenched in second spot in the ICC rankings behind leaders Australia.

Indian batting has clicked in stunning fashion in the first two matches, a day affair in Guwahati followed by a day/night one at Jaipur, and the bright aspect for the hosts is that it had achieved success both when setting and chasing targets.

Pace spearhead Zaheer Khan has been brought back for Saturday's encounter, which New Zealand must win to keep the series alive, to ease him back into big-time cricket following a spell of rest and recuperation from his injury.

Skipper Gambhir and in-form batsman Virat Kohli are certainties in the team. Left-hander Yuvraj Singh, slowly getting into his groove after being ignored for the Test series, has performed reasonably well in the first two ties, and the hosts would be looking up to the likes of Vijay and Yusuf Pathan to put in better efforts than they have done so far.

In the bowling department, with Zaheer replacing Sreesanth, the pace attack would be left-oriented though Munaf Patel is there to provide the contrast with his nagging line.

The Indian bowling has so far restricted the New Zealand batting line-up that missed the explosive willow-wielding prowess of injured Brendon McCullum in the first two matches.

India have lost their last two encounters against Australia at this venue while New Zealand have not played here since 1998.