India seek vengeance for 2019 against New Zealand as the table-toppers clash

India will probably be up for their stiffest challenge of the ongoing World Cup as the two top sides of the competition will be colliding head-on at the HPCA Stadium to determine the table-topper at the end of a pulsating clash. The Men in Blue have so far been in scintillating touch throughout the tournament that has seen them blowing apart Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Blackcaps have also been in tremendous form that has seen them steamroll the likes of England in the curtain-raiser while following that up with a handful of scintillating displays which saw them running roughshod over Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Both the sides will be arriving to the fixture on the back of some imperious firepower that will be starring the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul while the Kiwis’ line-up also boasts a very strong unit spearheaded by Tom Latham, who has done a sensational job as the side’s skipper.

However, there is a major injury concern for both the sides with Hardik Pandya copping a blow in the last game against Bangladesh while Kane Williamson broke his thumb when he was at the receiving end of a hurtling throw catching him off-guard.

With all said and done, both the sides come to this fixture with their respective stardust and will be hoping to score a ‘perfect five’ out of the first five games of the tournament. Going by the current points table, New Zealand is slightly ahead of India in terms of their NRR but once again, all of that equation can change drastically tomorrow.

Venue Watch:

There have been quite a few complaints about the HPCA outfield that have been troubling players while they are trying to dive. The surface is deemed to be a featherbed and batting gets increasingly easy in the second innings under the lights and on the ball is old and unless there is some magical reverse swing, the bowlers are being churned out like pushovers. From the seven ODIs played, three have been won batting first while four have been won chasing. The average first innings score in the venue in an ODI is 231 while the average second innings score is that of 199.

Head to Head:

Matches played: 116

India – 58

New Zealand - 50

Match Details:

Match – India vs New Zealand

Venue: HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala

Date: 22nd October, 2023

Time: 2:00 PM

World Cup face-offs:

Matches played: 9

India: 3

New Zealand: 5

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya* (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav.

Bangladesh: Tom Latham (c & wk), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young