IND vs NZ 2017: All eyes will be on Nehra on his final international match

Indian team during Practice Session at PCA Stadium
Nehra will play his final international match for India on Wednesday. File Pic

Internet Desk: Veteran left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra will dawn the blue jersey for one last time at his home ground tomorrow when India will lock horns with New Zealand in the first match of the three-match T20I.

It will be Nehra’s final game in any form of cricket and he would be aiming to finish his career on a high note in front of his home crowd at the Feroz Shah Kotla. In his prolonged international career he has suffered many injuries and made many dramatic comebacks.

The host nation’s T20I record against the Blackcaps is very shocking. In all five encounters the Men in Blue has lost all five matches and the last one came back in 2016 in World T20.

Virat Kohli & Co. would want to break those jinx after their brilliant performance against the world’s best teams like Australia, England and others.

That aside, India have been on a roll.

With series wins over big teams like Australia, India have firmly stamped their supremacy in the limited-overs format.

Having emerged a 2-1 winner in a keenly-contested preceding One-day International series against the same opponents, India’s confidence is high and they would look to continue the good work in this slam-bang format.

With a strong all-round and in-form team at their disposal, India will fancy their chances of improving their record against the Kiwis.

Fresh from his fluent century in the series-deciding third and final ODI, which made him the fastest to complete 9000 runs, skipper Virat Kohli will be eyeing yet another series victory.

He looked in great touch alongside Rohit Sharma, the game’s other centurion, and the two batting stalwarts would eye an encore.

Besides the vice-captain and the captain, Shikhar Dhawan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has a better record against the Kiwis among Indian players, will look to shoulder the batting responsibility.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya adds to the team’s strength and the New Zealanders would be wary of him.

In bowling, India will look to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah for breakthroughs with the new ball as well as in the death overs.

With his match-turning effort on Sunday, Bumrah showed why he is considered the best death bowler in the world.

Though he went for 92 in his 10-over spell in Kanpur, Bhuvneshwar has normally been a bowler captain Kohli could turn to.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal will be high on confidence after his crucial two-wicket burst at Green Park and he is again going to be the key spinner. Kuldeep Yadav is the other spinner, who could figure in the playing XI.

Then there is Nehra, who will bring to an end 18 years of international cricket journey, and he must be hoping for that perfect ending.

Against the likes of Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner, it will take some doing.

Teams (from):

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj, Ashish Nehra (only for first game), Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, KL Rahul.

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.