India v New Zealand 1st ODI at Guwahati

India play New Zealand in the first Test ODI at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. This is a part of the five match series after the Test series was won by India 1-0. India had won the previous series against New Zealand in New Zealand 3-1 and have never lost an ODI series at home to the Kiwis. However, it must be said that the New Zealand side has run the Indians close of many occasions and with a young team that India goes in with, things could get interesting.

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With New Zealand going into the game after losing their last ODI series to Bangladesh 4-0, it will need them to display the same spirit that they had in the Test series to be able to put a couple across the Indian side.

India v New Zealand, 1st ODI at Guwahati Timings:

This will be a very early morning start to the game. The match will start from 8.30 am IST or 0300 hours GMT and there is a good chance that the early morning dew will get the team winning the toss to field first.

Venue:

This is going to be the last international match played on this ground in Guwahati, before the action moves to another ground in the city. The last time a game was played on this ground, India had surprisingly elected to bat first on a track which had enough moisture to do otherwise. They lost their top half of the batting to the Australian pace bowlers and were never in the game to go on and lose the series.

The Teams:

India will have a new-look side but given the number of times it has had a new look to their ODI team this year, it hardly remains new-looking! Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar have been rested from the batting, while the pair of Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh continue to attend their niggles.

Instead, the Indians will see Gautam Gambhir lead the team and open the innings with Murali Vijay. Yuvraj Singh will to continue with his comeback efforts and look to fight for the final World Cup berth with the likes of Virat Kohli and Saurabh Tiwary. On the bowling front, it does get interesting as India will look to play three frontline pace bowlers and one spinner.

There have been clarion calls for the inclusion of R Ashwin in the side and if that happens, it will be a toss-up between Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan for the “all-rounder’s” slot. Ashish Nehra, S Sreesanth and one of Munaf Patel or Vinay Kumar will make it to the side.

New Zealand are still reeling from their 4-0 whitewash to Bangladesh and that can be seen from the manner in which they have buffered up the team. Scot Styris and Jamie How make their comebacks, while the batting will rely on the hard-hitting Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. Jesse Ryder will be absent and the duo will need to bring about all their experience along with that of Styris to get going.

The bowling will see both Daniel Vettori and Nathan McCullum handle the spin department and if the conditions seem right, Darryl Tuffey, Kyle Mills and Tim Southee will be the pace bowlers.

Players to look out for:

Yuvraj Singh will look to impress the selectors given his ouster from the Test match team and the absence of the senior men will mean that the pressure will be on him to deliver. For New Zealand, Kane Williamson has had a good run with a century in Bangladesh and one in the Tests against India and will look to grow as a batsman.