New Zealand vs India: Kiwis name the 14-man squad for the first three ODIs

Enroute Cricket World Cup 2019, India will play a total of another ten ODIs post the tour of Australia. Five of those games will be played against New Zealand while the team will confront Australia again in the remaining five matches. The ODI series against the Blackcaps will begin on 23 January at Napier.

This will be a much tougher battle for the Indians when compared the competition against a depleted Australian side. The New Zealand team has been playing some good cricket of late. Most of the players are in a rich vein of form and ready to do well for the team. For the India series, the selectors have named a strong 14-man squad. Some of the players rested for the Sri Lanka series will be back in action for this massive series.

Latham, Santner return

After a mindboggling Test series against the Lankans, New Zealand decided to rest Tom Latham. The wicket-keeper batsman, though, will return to the fold for this series. He will have a massive role to play for his team in the upcoming games as well. He has replaced the underperforming Tim Seifert who only managed to score 33 runs in two innings this year.

Also, Colin de Grandhomme is back in the mix replacing James Neesham. Had he not suffered the grade-one hamstring strain in the third ODI against Sri Lanka, Neesham was sure to have made it to the squad. He was truly exceptional in the last series and has given de Grandhomme a tough challenge. The right-hander will have to be at his best in this series to retain his spot.

Another surprising inclusion is that of Mitchell Santner. The bowling all-rounder just about recovered from his injury and played T20Is against Lanka. He was last seen in action in March 2018 in this format of the game.

“Our two main priorities have been to select and prepare a squad capable of winning what is shaping as a massive series against India, and gathering as much information as possible ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales. Tom and Colin are experienced players in this format and will offer quality in their respective roles, and Mitch and Doug showed us what they are capable of during the T20 on Friday night,” said head coach Gary Stead about the selections.

The Kiwis are also keen on giving more opportunities to Neesham and Todd Astle, who is suffering a knee injury. These two could be picked for the last two games of the series.

New Zealand squad for the first three ODIs: Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.