Kiwis usher in new era with veteran duo on the outer for India series

The Black Caps will take on the powerful India line-up in a total of six white-ball contests (three T20Is and three ODIs) starting on Friday and the Kiwis announced a pair of 13-player squads for the matches on Tuesday.

Skipper Kane Williamson will once lead New Zealand during the series, but there is no room for veteran opener Martin Guptill and left-arm quick Trent Boult.

The Kiwis have opted to use the promising Finn Allen ahead of Guptill at the top of the order in recent times and the 23-year-old right-hander is once again preferred for the India series.

Boult, meanwhile, will also be on the sidelines after he made the decision earlier this year to turn his back on his contract with New Zealand Cricket in order to spend more time with his family and concentrate on opportunities in domestic leagues around the world.

Boult shock: New Zealand pacer turns back on central contract

New Zealand coach Gary Stead said it was a difficult decision to omit Boult and Guptill, but said the door was still open for the pair to return to the international fold.

"When Trent opted out of his NZC contract in August, we indicated that priority would be given to those players with either central or domestic contracts, and that’s been the case here," he said.

"We’re all aware of Trent’s world class ability, but at this time - as we build towards more global events, we want to give opportunities and experiences to others.

"The emergence and success of Finn at the top of the order in white-ball cricket means a guy of the class of Martin Guptill misses out – that’s just the nature of high performance sport.

"With the 50-over World Cup less than a year away we’re keen to give Finn every opportunity to keep gaining ODI experience, especially against quality opposition such as India.

"The message to both those players is that there’s a lot of international cricket ahead and the door is certainly not closed to them."

New Zealand T20I squad: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner

New Zealand ODI squad: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee

India T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik

India ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik

T20I Schedule:

Wellington (November 18)
Tauranga (November 20)
Napier (November 22)

ODI Schedule:

Auckland (November 25)
Hamilton (November 27)
Christchurch (November 30)