Internet Desk: A confident Indian team led by their talismanic captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will look to ascertain their supremacy over New Zealand as both teams face each other in the first One Day at HPCA stadium in Himachal Pradesh. The men in blue will be brimming with confidence after a clean-sweep in the Test series and would look to carry on their dominance over the visitors.
With Kohli delivering as skipper in the Test series, the pressure will be high on Dhoni as India need to beat New Zealand by a 4-1 margin to claim the third spot in the ICC ODI rankings. The Kiwis are currently ranked third with 113 points, while India are at fourth with 110.
New Zealand have never won a bilateral ODI series in India, having lost all four previous such rubber. While in multi-team events, New Zealand’s record on Indian soil is 18-11, the bigger picture is that the Kiwis have never won a bilateral ODI series in India.
New Zealand lost all the four previous series played between the two teams — in 1988, 1995, 1999 and 2010.
In fact, in the last series in 2010, India went on to achieve a whitewash over New Zealand inspite of missing a few key players. Gautam Gambhir captained India in that series.
Both the teams have played 93 matches against each other so far with India recording 46 wins while New Zealand notching 41 victories. Five matches saw no results and one was a tie.
However, all is not lost for the Kiwis as in the last five ODIs played between the two teams, New Zealand have won four and one was tied.
The Indian team will be without three of its key players – Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami – all of whom have been rested keeping in mind the test series coming up against England.
Ravichandran Ashwin will be sorely missed by Dhoni as the off spinner was in tremendous form in the test series. He finished with 27 wickets in the series.
The onus will be on the spin trio off-spinner Jayant Yadav, left-arm spinner Axar Patel and Amit Mishra to check the flow of runs in the middle overs.
Umesh Yadav will spearhead the fast bowling department in the absence of Md Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma. Bhuvi is nursing a back strain while Ishant is ruled out due to Chikungunya. Mumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarni will be the other fast bowling option for Dhoni. Hardik Pandya will also look to impress the selectors after being dropped during tours of Zimbabwe and United States respectively.
On the batting front Kohli will lead the charge along with Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey. Kohli will be high on confidence after hitting a career best 211 against New Zealand in the final Test in Indore. Experienced Suresh Raina will be another casualty for India as he is down with viral fever.
Dhoni’s last significant ODI innings was an unbeaten 92 against South Africa in October 2015, and he would be eyeing a strong performance to silence his critics at the fag end of his career.
On the other hand, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson has the unenvious task of trying to rally his team following three Test losses.
The Black Caps will be strengthened by the return of their most successful bowler and most destructive batsman in Tim Southee and Corey Anderson.
Southee, who has 135 one-day wickets, missed the recent three-match Test series with an ankle injury and has not played a single ODI this year while Anderson, who has the highest strike of any New Zealand player in ODI history, returns from an ankle injury to bolster the batting.
Southee along with Trent Boult, the highest ranked ODI bowler, are bound to trouble any batting line-up.
New Zealand will look upto Martin Guptil and Ross Taylor, who looked clueless against Indian spinners in the Test series, to come good if the visitors are to match India in the ODI series.
The Black Caps will feel much familiar with the chilly conditions of Dharamsala, the venue of the first ODI.
The toss is expected to play a vital role in deciding the outcome of the match as dew will be a major factor once the night falls.