Hello Everyone,

Welcome to today's preview about the ongoing India vs New Zealand series after the completion of the 2nd Odi match of the 3 game series. Before the start of the series it was a promising contest for the hosts after thrashing Sri Lanka 3-0 at home just days ago which many said was quite predictable as the Lankas were ranked as the number 8 side in the world which made the NZ series a bit more interesting for people as New Zealand were coming off a series win from Pakistan and also they are the number 1 ranked team in the world currently.

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India holds a marvellous record at home where they haven't lost any of the last 24 series that have played at home which is a really tremendous record to start with. So the feasty series began on 18th Jan in Hyderabad.

Squad Analysis

• India

2023 is a World Cup year and it has relatively more significance for India than any other team as it's going to be hosted by India as well as the last ICC silverware won by India was back in 2013 after which Indian team has been around the knockouts ever since. The squad that is going to be picked is going to be very crucial again as the timing is very critical because the recent 2022 T20 WC debacle and also the stepping down of Virat Kohli as the skipper of the team has not only highlighted there are underlying issues within the management but also some sort of suppression of freedom in some sense as far as the selection is concerned.

(photo credit - BCCI)

Regardless of all that as expected there were quite a few surprises in the squad announced for the NZ series such as the exclusion of Sanju Samson, Ravi Bishnoi did not made much sense also the inclusion of SKY based on T20s just highlights the mentality of mixing formats by the selectors.

This was the squad for NZ Odi series -

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik

It is nice to see Umran getting a long rope in the national team as he can be a very important asset for India in the upcoming WC. A very big glaring issue that the Indian team is suffering from is the flurry of injuries as the team is missing out on a lot of first choice players in the playing 11.

• New Zealand

New Zealand has quite a settled camp where the role is pretty much defined for players as well as the ones on bench. It seems they have already locked down most of the players that are going to feature in the WC later this year.

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Although for this series NZC had rested their captain Tim Southee as well as their ex-captain Kane Williamson for the series for managing their workload which gives the bench the chance to step up as well.

Here is the squad NZ picked -

Tom Latham (c), Finn Allen, Doug Bracewell, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Henry Shipley, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner

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Expectations From the Series -

• Both teams coming off tasting success

Firstly this series is expected to be a great one as the number 1 ranked side takes on a team which is rather unbeatable at home. Both teams are coming off a series victory, New Zealand are touring India after winning 2-1 against Pakistan and India just whitewashed Sri Lanka 3-0 with the world record 317 run victory match being one of them too.

• King Kohli regaining his mojo

Virat Kohli is the biggest cricket player in the modern times are arguably is a GOAT but he was going to a lean patch since the pandemic stuck, there wasn't much cricket scheduled in that period but still he was simply not able to get runs and pressure kept piling upon him from media and ex-cricketers and who not. He even was sacked from captaincy from the ODI side and eventually gave up the captaincy from the other two formats as well.

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But ever since the Asia Cup 2022 he seems to have been kind of coming closer to doing things he used to do. He scored a century against Afghanistan which was although his 71st ton but that came after over 1000 days after which he has been in ominous touch. He has scored truckloads of runs even in pressure and also won the World Cup game against Pakistan which seemed dead and buried right from the start. Virat's contribution will be hugely important for India in the upcoming world cup, he's one of the key for India's fortunes without any doubt.

• Indian Bowling stepping up

Bumrah, who is the main spearhead for Indian bowling has been missing games since a lot of months due to injury which has giving chances for other young bowlers to step up and deliver. There are a lot of exciting prospects to look at in this series and the squad has got Siraj, Umran and Arshdeep in it all of whom do bring a different set of attributes to offer, it'll be great to see all of them operate in tandem.

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All in all it is going to be an absolute cracker of a series without a doubt and it will be interesting to see the experiments the teams are willing to do with regards to their world cup preparations in mind. On top of that India has got a chance to get to the top of the rankings if they manage to whitewash New Zealand 3-0 in the series which will be a great feat as India already stands at the top in T20i format and #2 in the Tests.

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THIS BLOG WILL BE CONTINUED WITH THE ANALYSIS OF THE INDIVIDUAL ODI MATCHES THAT TAKE PLACE

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Sayu

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