Indian cricket under the captaincy of Virat Kohli outplayed the New Zealand team in the test series with 3-0 win. With the first of five matches ODI series starting from tomorrow at Dharamshala, New Zealand poses a tough challenge for the Indian team.
The New Zealand team has not had a great record in One-day internationals, especially in India. Last time they came to play a One-day international series in India they were outplayed and lost the series 0-5. India. With India resting some of their key players for the first three one-day internationals, the Indian selectors have included Mandeep Singh, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Jayant Yadav, in the team. These 3 One day Internationals provide a great chance for these youngsters to show their promise against a top quality ODI side like New Zealand and cement their place in the team. India is ranked fourth in the rankings while New Zealand is 3rd.
India’s form in One-day internationals has not been good. They have lost the ODI series against Australia 1-4. Their next series was against Zimbabwe where they won the series 3-0. In the batting department, the job lies on Rohit Sharma, Kohli, Rahane to play aggressive cricket and put the New Zealand bowlers under pressure. While the Indian bowling looks weak with Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni and Umesh Yadav the pacers. The spinners include Axar Patel, Amit Mishra. It promises to be a good battle between two good One-day international teams.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah is the leading wicket taker in ODI with 11 wickets from 4 matches in the year 2016 so far.
The pressure will be on the Indian captain MS Dhoni whose performance has come down. He lost the ODI series against Australia badly and won the series against Zimbabwe. He should come up the order to get more time in the middle which will help to play more overs and score big runs. This series will be a big one for him to prove that he is still the best captain in the world for India especially in the shorter format.
Indian team needs to play aggressive cricket like the way they did in the test series. All the batsmen need to contribute big time while the bowlers need to restrict the New Zealand batsmen. The New Zealand team have good ODI batsmen in the form of Martin Guptill, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi.
MS Dhoni has to play a key role in helping India winning the ODI series. He lost the previous home series against South Africa. If he can bring back his magic with his captaincy and India, then India are a tough team to beat.
In the first One-day international tomorrow at Dharmashala, the team combination of the Indian team will be important. Suresh Raina will not play the first ODI due to viral fever. India needs to play their best cricket to beat Kiwis.
It promises to be a mouthwatering clash between these two teams. If India can execute their plans properly, then India can surely beat the New Zealand team with ease and become the 3rd rank team in the world.