India eye to inflict whitewash upon stuttering New Zealand

It has so far been a fine display from the Men in Blue as they vanquished New Zealand emphatically, seizing the bragging rights of the ongoing fray against the Blackcaps. If the first ODI was a cracker of a contest, the second one saw the visitors submitting in docile resignation against a marauding Indian bowling unit.

Considering the fact that India has already bagged the series, they may be tempted to bring in a few shuffles in the playing XI that may witness Shahbaz Ahmed and Rajat Patidar getting a call-up. With Srikar Bharat on the bench, India may even try and test him out considering the very minimal consequences that this game would have on the fabric of the series.

New Zealand, on the contrary, will be coaxing their batters to put up a resolute stand against a sublime Indian bowling unit that has so far been spearheaded by Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj and the duo has reaped handsome dividends, especially with the help of the early seam that has left the Kiwi batters reeling.

Even though the fate of the series has already been sealed, the final game of the contest has all the elements of becoming a thriller that would leave you hooked to your seats for we have two juggernauts all set to take each other by the scruff of their neck.

Venue Watch:

The Holkar Stadium in Indore has hosted a handful of ODIs until now. The average score batting first from the 5 games that have been played here is 307. The average score batting second is also a staggering 260, numbers that would signify the fact that we may very well be eyeing a momentous run-fest between two mavens of the 50-over format.

Head-to-head:

Matches played: 115

India: 57

New Zealand: 50

Match Details:

India vs New Zealand

Holkar Stadium, Indore

24th January 2023

1:30 PM IST

Squads:

India:

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik.

New Zealand:

Tom Latham (c), Finn Allen, Doug Bracewell [for Matt Henry], Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Henry Shipley, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner