Predicted India 15-member squad for the ODI series against New Zealand

Team India will take on New Zealand in the 5-match One-Day International series starting October 16 at the picturesque HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala. The selection panel chaired by former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman MSK Prasad will meet for the first time today and will be interesting to see what policy they chose to opt for- give those previously ignored a chance for redemption or back the young faces to lead the team into the future.

Both the teams will be eager to prove their mettle in the ODIs after having played weeks of Test cricket. For the Indian team, there will be a change in leadership as limited-overs skipper MS Dhoni will come back in to lead the unit.

Virat Kohli will once again move to just play with the batting responsibilities though someone as passionate as him can never keep off from throwing in his energy, will not have the tougher job of making the decisions. A lot of fresh faces will join the squad with Dhoni in the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, India A skipper Manish Pandey and others.

Rohit Sharma will be back to opening the inning and will most likely have Lokesh Rahul as his partner. In our opinion, with the likes of Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara being considered just for the Tests, the selectors will want to bring in two left-handers who have this ability to make an immediate impact- Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

While Yuvraj appeared for a fitness test with Gautam Gambhir ahead of the 3rd Test, it appears that the selectors have an eye on him. Raina, on the other hand, had been a regular feature in the squad before being dropped from the Australia tour.

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Given that most of the wickets in India will favor the batsmen and the team needs someone lower down to support Dhoni to finish things off, it improves the chances of his inclusion. There are also murmurs that Gautam Gambhir might be considered but given that he last played a 50 overs game for India in 2013.

If Prasad & Co. opt to push with the youngsters then names like Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Akhil Hirwadkar come into the picture. But given that it is one of the few limited-overs series the Men in Blue will play in the next one year or so and New Zealand is a force to reckon with the white ball no matter the conditions they would want to have a mix of the freshers and regular names.

CricTracker’s predicted Squad: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (C/wk), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Schedule for India v New Zealand ODI series

1st ODI – Oct 16, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala – 1:30 PM

2nd ODI – Oct 20, Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi – 1:30 PM

3rd ODI – Oct 23, Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali – 1:30 PM

4th ODI – Oct 26, JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi – 1:30 PM

5th ODI – Oct 29, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam – 1:30 PM

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