India and New Zealand will face off in the first ODI of their five-match series at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Sunday. The hosts will start as favourites having recently won the Test series 3-0.
The Indian side will be much changed from the team that turned out in whites, with MS Dhoni returning as the captain of the limited-overs side. In addition to that, a few Indian cricketers have been rested with the long home season in mind.
India’s form in ODI cricket since the 2015 World Cup hasn’t been great, having lost three out of the last five series that they have played in. In fact, the two series that they were victorious in were against Zimbabwe.
New Zealand, on the other hand, are a very formidable ODI team and will be hoping to salvage some pride after getting whitewashed in the Test series.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: 16 October 2016
Time: 12:00 GST, 13:30 local time (IST), 08:00 GMT
Venue: HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Star Sports 1, HD 1 (English), Star Sports 3, HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports 5 HD
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE blog: Sport360 blog
TEAM NEWS, SQUAD, PREDICTED XI
INDIA SQUAD: MS Dhoni (c), Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Amit Mishra, Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Umesh Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav.
With the long home season in mind, India have rested three of their most important bowlers – Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. In addition to that, opener Shikhar Dhawan is out with an injury which he suffered during the second Test at Kolkata.
In the absence of Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane – who was in sublime form during the Test series – is all set open the innings with Rohit Sharma.
With Suresh Raina out of the match due to viral fever, Kedar Jadhav is most likely to come into the line-up. Mandeep Singh, who did reasonably well in the T20Is on the tour of Zimbabwe, is another option.
Dhoni is likely to stick with a two spinners-three pacers strategy. The Indian think-tank might be tempted to add more batting muscle and play Hardik Pandya instead of Dhawal Kulkarni from the line-up given below.
PREDICTED INDIA XI: Rohit, Rahane, Kohli, Pandey, Jadhav, Dhoni (c/wk), Axar, Mishra, Kulkarni, Yadav, Bumrah.
NEW ZEALAND SQUAD: Kane Williamson (c), Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Anton Devcich, Matt Henry, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.
New Zealand will be relieved to see the return of Tim Southee and long-term absentee Corey Anderson, both of whom who missed the Test series due to injuries.
With Brendon McCullum’s retirement came a big gaping hole at the top of New Zealand’s batting order. Tom Latham and Anton Devcich are the two batsmen in contention to open alongside Martin Guptill, who has been one of the finest limited-over batsmen over the last few years.
Latham is likely to get the nod after his respectable performances with the bat for the Blackcaps in the Test series against India.
As the pitch in Dharamsala tends to assist the quicker bowlers, one will not be surprised if Jimmy Neesham is preferred over Ish Sodhi.
PREDICTED NEW ZEALAND XI: Guptill, Latham, Williamson (c), Taylor, Anderson, Ronchi (wk), Santner, Southee, Henry, Sodhi, Boult.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
INDIA: W W W W L
NEW ZEALAND: W L W W W
MATCH PREDICTION
India to win, but expect it to be a fair lot closer than the Test matches.