Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli return as India face NZ in ODIs

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli come back into India’s ODI colours when the five-match series against New Zealand opens at Eden Park, Auckland, on Wednesday, 4 November. Shubman Gill leads India for the first three matches, and Mitchell Santner captains New Zealand.

India will be without Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested for the ODIs in New Zealand. Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna is out of the whole series after failing to get fitness clearance following a hamstring injury, and Auqib Nabi has been added to the squad for the first three ODIs.

Rohit and Kohli in focus

Deccan Herald reports that Rohit, 39, and Kohli, 37, are on what is expected to be their last tour of New Zealand, and that both have named next year’s World Cup as the stage for their farewell.

Kohli, the second-highest run-scorer in ODI history, has 15,109 ODI runs including 55 centuries. In the recent series against the West Indies he made 168 runs in three innings, including an unbeaten 139 off 88 balls in the first match while chasing 296. Rohit has 12,120 ODI runs with 35 hundreds, and scored 225 runs in three innings against the West Indies at an average of 75.00, with a century, a half-century and a best of 101.

Former India batter Cheteshwar Pujara said on JioHotstar that Kohli has a slightly better chance of a hundred in New Zealand than Rohit, because Kohli bats at No. 3 and can play the anchor role.

Squad changes

All-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy stays with the squad for the first ODI, then joins the India A squad for match practice ahead of the two-Test series against New Zealand that begins on 19 November.

Coming off two T20I defeats

India arrive after losing the last two matches of the T20I series: by 87 runs on 30 October and by 7 wickets on 1 November, when New Zealand reached 195/3 in 18 overs against India’s 191/8. In that last game Ishan Kishan made 61 off 32 balls and Shreyas Iyer 50 off 23, while Adam Milne took 4 for 19 for New Zealand.

What’s next

The first ODI starts at 7:30 AM IST on Wednesday, with all five matches of the series still to be played. The second ODI follows on Saturday, 7 November, and the third on Tuesday, 10 November, both at 7:30 AM IST.