India and New Zealand, the only two unbeaten teams in this World Cup so far, will face each other to continue with their winning streak. However, again, the weather will play a crucial part, and there are high chances of rain predicted for today.
India’s problem with number 4 was sorted out after KL Rahul scored a hundred in the warm-up game, but now with Dhawan’s injury, the problem is back again. Rahul will open with Rohit now, and Indian think-tank has to pick one from Karthik and Shankar for number 4 slot.
As a unit, India still looks more strong than the Kiwis despite losing the warm-up game against them. India won the real battle without a fuss against the two strongest teams of this World Cup, South Africa, and Australia. India also won the ODI series (4-1) against the Kiwis on their home turf earlier this year.
New Zealand has won all their three matches in this world cup but against the weaker teams of the tournament. This match will be their first game against a dominant team, and they will be tested for sure.
The bowling has been brilliant so far for the Kiwis as they bowled out every opposition below the score of 250. The concern would be batting as Kiwis have not batted first in this tournament, either in the warm-up or the three league games. So it will be interesting to see if they score easy runs against India’s bowling, which is considered to be the best in the competition.
The weather has been the most frustrating part of this world cup, and it will be continued to be the same for today at least. Win the toss and bowl first to take advantage of weather conditions.
Players to watch out
Having lost his successful opening partner Dhawan, Rohit Sharma has to provide a solid start against the quality bowling side of New Zealand. He has been in sublime form; a fifty and a hundred in the first two games shows his dominance in white ball cricket. If he scores well here, India will go on to score something around 300.
Ross Taylor who is playing his last World Cup desperately wants to win the trophy for New Zealand for the first time. He is the leading run scorer for New Zealand in this competition. Ross is known for his power-hitting in the middle overs which maintains the run-rate of the team. Being the most experienced player of the team, he surely needs to score big today against the quality spin attack of India.
India v New Zealand in ODIs:
Overall: Matches 106, India Won 55, New Zealand Won 45, Tie 1, No Result 5
World Cup: Matches 7, India Won 3, New Zealand Won 4
Recent Form (most recent first): India W W L L L, New Zealand W W W W W
ICC Rankings: India (2), New Zealand (4)
Upcoming Records:
Virat Kohli needs 57 more runs to reach the 11,000 runs milestone, and he will be the 3rd Indian after Tendulkar and Ganguly to reach the milestone.
Martin Guptill has scored 907 runs in World Cup and needs 93 more to become the second New Zealand player to reach the 1,000 runs milestone.
Hardik Pandya needs six wickets to reach 50 wickets milestone in ODIs while Coulter-Nile needs 2.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (capt), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Tom Blundell (wk), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
