Batsmen to the fore at the Wankhede
Around the same time last year, India and New Zealand were involved in a long series -- three Tests and five One-Day Internationals. New Zealand put up a terrific fight to come back from a 3-0 whitewash in the Tests to level the ODI series 2-2 ahead of the final encounter in Visakhapatnam. The Indian bowlers, however, dominated the last game, bundling Kane Williamson's men out for 79 to pick up a massive win, and a series victory.
Come Sunday, the two sides will meet again for three ODIs followed by three Twenty20 Internationals.
Six out of the 15 players in New Zealand's ODI squad have been in India since September, turning out for an A tour comprising two four-day games and five 50-over matches against India A.
Even the second set of players flew in to India ahead of time to get acclimatised to the conditions quickly. The mercury levels in Mumbai will be hovering at least 15 degrees above the usual temperature across New Zealand at this time of the year, and the pitches, as expected, will be in favour of the batsmen with some support for spinners.
It has been two years since the Wankhede Stadium, the venue for the first match, has hosted an ODI. Then, South Africa's AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock clobbered the bowlers to post 438 for 4 before sending the home side hurtling to a 214-run loss, India's second biggest defeat in terms of run-margin.
The last T20I (India v Windies, ICC World T20 semifinal) here was also played on a batting paradise, with 388 runs overall being scored by the sides in less than 40 overs. More recently, when India and England played a Test match at this venue, Virat Kohli hit a double hundred and three other batsmen -- Keaton Jennings, M Vijay and Jayant Yadav -- struck centuries before the wear and tear of a fifth-day pitch finally offered some respite to the bowlers.
A batting-friendly strip, therefore, is almost guaranteed. That shouldn't worry New Zealand, who have the experience of Kane Williamson, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor, with Colin Munro, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Glenn Phillips filling up the remaining specialists's spots in the batting department. While Latham and Taylor have been among the runs in the two warm-up matches against Board President's XI over the past week, Phillips earned a spot in the squad with an explosive unbeaten ton for New Zealand A against India A in a 50-over game earlier this month. Colin de Grandhomme and George Worker are the two allrounders also in the squad.
New Zealand's bowling looks equally impressive. With Trent Boult and Tim Southee leading the pace attack, Adam Milne and Matt Henry are excellent fall-back choices with De Grandhomme also available to Williamson as a medium-pace option.
The spinners, though, will have to take charge in the middle overs. Ish Sodhi, who came in for the injured Todd Astle, has been in India for a while, turning out for New Zealand A in both the four-day series and the 50-over games. He, along with Mitchell Santner and Worker make up the spin attack.
Meanwhile, India comes into the competition on the back of a thumping 4-1 win over Australia in ODIs and a 1-1 draw in the T20I series. The squad for this series is nearly identical to the one that took on Australia except for three changes -- Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik and Shardul Thakur have been drafted in for KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja continued to be rested, with both players keeping busy by turning out for their respective sides in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy.
Ajinkya Rahane has been in great form, but he is likely to be warming the bench with Dhawan returning, and Kohli making it clear that he did not want to experiment by slotting the Mumbai batsman into the middle order. Rohit Sharma, another local boy and the vice captain of the side, would be opening alongside Dhawan.
The middle order looks solid as ever, with Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Karthik is there to chip in if required.
The pace unit will be spearheaded by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah with support from Pandya. Yhe spin responsibilities lie on the shoulders of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, the two wrist spinners who tormented Australia, with Shardul and Axar Patel also in the mix.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, George Worker, Ish Sodhi.
