India will go into the ODI series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 with a much changed One Day team under the Captaincy of Gautham Gambhir. The Indian selection committee has decided to rest their key players ahead of the much awaited tour
of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
Gambhir is looking forward to leading the Indian team at home and believes his side will win the 5 match series. He said, “It's a dream, I'm really excited. Hopefully I can live up to the expectation. It's a responsibility that
has been given to the team.”
India’s decision to not put their regular ODI team on the field in the upcoming series has been criticized by many. The criticism has been based on the fact that this will be India’s final ODI series on home soil and it will help
the home team to practice for the upcoming World Cup. The 2011 World Cup will be held in India, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 and Bangladesh.
This is an important series for both teams but for very different reasons. India who have had an amazing cricketing year will be hoping to get some runs from their out of form batsmen by giving them a chance in the series. Middle
order batsmen Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina will try and get some runs to their names in order to ensure their place in the World Cup playing eleven. The stand-in Captain has backed both players to do well. On Yuvraj he said, “He already has a half-century
to his name in the last one-dayer he played. It's just about playing one big innings and then he is back to his best." Gambhir defended Raina by saying,” If you look at his last performance in ODIs, he won the match against Australia." In his previous 15 ODI’s,
Raina has managed only one half century.
India will also welcome the comeback of power hitter Yusuf Pathan. An in-form Pathan in the 2011 World Cup will be a huge asset for India. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 has won 3 of their last 5 ODI matches and will go into the One Day series with high
confidence after defeating both New Zealand and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
For New Zealand, this can be seen as a must win series. The Kiwis were thrashed to 4-0 clean swipe in the ODI series against Bangladesh away from home. Also, New Zealand has managed to win only 6 of their previous 16 ODI matches
this year. The visitors will play a much experienced side than the one in the Test matches.
Kiwi’s skipper Vettori has stated that they will not underestimate a below par Indian side. He expressed confidence in his team and believes that the inclusion of senior players into the side will boost the performance of his side.
New Zealand came to India after a humiliating defeat at the hands of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 and hence went into the Test match series against India under a lot of pressure. The Kiwis have come out of the three Test match series redeeming themselves despite losing the
series 1-0. New Zealand put on a fighting performance against the home side in the first 2 Test matches to claim a draw in both matches. Their batting line-up failed in the third and final Test which ended in an innings defeat for the visitors.
New Zealand will take on another sub continent team, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, at home after the completion of their Indian tour.
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