A new-look India side under Gautam Gambhir’s leadership is all set to take on the visiting New Zealand side in the opener of the one-day series starting in Guwahati on Sunday.
The five-match ODI series will be India’s last expedition in the subcontinent before they start their campaign for the next year’s World Cup. Thus it will be one last chance for the struggling Indian players to press their claims ahead of
the mega cricketing event to be jointly hosted by the three subcontinent nations – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747.
The three-match Test series between the two outfits, concluded last week, was won by the home side by 1-0 and now they will be coming into the ODI series with most of their senior players including regular captain MS Dhoni rested because
of injury concerns.
From the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 perspective, the tourists would be eager to wash away the bitter memories of 4-0 hammering at the hands of Bengali tigers by coming down on the new-look India side quite heavily.
Whilst India will be missing the heroics of its first choice line-up including batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and the charismatic opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virender-Sehwag-c95429, the Kiwis have the ammo in the form of experienced batting department with the likes
of Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915, Scott Styris and the captain Daniel Vettori.
Although the Kiwis would be missing services of Jesse Ryder, James Franklin has been drafted in for injured Ryder though it is not confirmed whether he makes the playing XI for Sunday’s game or not.
The only experienced and seasoned name in the Indian batting squad armoury would be Yuvraj Singh who must be desperate to prove his worth by putting in a good show in the middle-order. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Murali-Vijay-c78035 has been called in to add strength to the
opening slot in place of Sehwag.
In the middle order, Suresh Raina would be joining the stylish-but-struggling Yuvraj and the two would undoubtedly be the cynosure of all eyes in the absence of rest of the experienced players.
Yousuf Pathan has been given another chance to prove his mettle ahead of the quadrennial event starting from 19 February 2011. The devastating Pathan had an impressive all-round domestic season for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Baroda-c769. Having been given another chance
to forward his case ahead of the 2011 World Cup, Pathan will face a direct competition from 21-year-old all-rounder http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravindra-c84236 Jadeja.
In the absence of the first choice gloveman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dinesh-c54134 Kartik, is all set to make his ODI debut tomorrow. Saha’s performance – both with the bat and
the gloves – would be observed closely by the management. The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 next month.
The spearhead pacer Zaheer Khan has also been rested so the new ball is likely to be shared by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Praveen-Kumar-c82600 as the latter is out with fever. The spin department would be led
by off-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ravichandran-Ashwin-c84208 in the absence of Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha.
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