Rohit Sharma led India would test their skills against New Zealand from today, as the game is to be played at Bengaluru for the first of 3 match Test series. The men in blue boast of a six match winning streak in Test cricket and had last registered a famous victory against Bangladesh in Kanpur.
New Zealand, who faced a whitewash at the hands of Sri Lanka, will be petrified of an Indian team that is pretty strong on their land. Meanwhile, the Kiwis will miss skipper Kane Williamson, who is out due to injury, and Tom Latham will lead the charge for them in this series.
Meanwhile, this is more or less the same Indian side that was selected for the recently concluded Bangladesh Test series and sees Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah staying as the lead pacers, followed by Akash Deep. Coming to the batting front, new-generation players Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill will look to continue their stunning performances in the longest performance of the game.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and senior batsman Virat Kohli will also look to contribute to some runs in this series to shut the growing noises about the duo not contributing enough runs of late. The Indian skipper has amassed 497 runs averaging close to 35 with two hundreds and one fifty while Kohli hasn't even managed to score a half century in the six innings played this year.
India squad:
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.
New Zealand Squad:
Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Mark Chapman, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell (wk), Ajaz Patel, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, William O'Rourke, Jacob Duffy.
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