🏏India vs New Zealand, 1st ODI - RGI Stadium, Hyderabad - 18/01/23 🏏 - Page 2

All these games have given India some great bench strength. The rise of Mohammed Siraj as the spearhead. He looks like an automatic pick for the World Cup. Shreyas Iyer's spin and pressure handling abilities. Kuldeep's impressive return.

Shubman Gill grabbing his chance and making a massive statement. Umran Malik's middle overs prowess. Axar Patel making vital runs, let along his bowling. Virat's return to top form. KL proving his worth at No. 5. A lot has gone right for India. You just hope that players stay fit and hold form. Still a few gaps left to fill and the team would hope that their best fits fill the boxes in the upcoming games.

Shardul Thakur marking his run-up, my colleague from the Hindi team Afzal Jiwani tells me. Which means either Umran Malik, shami or Siraj won't get a chance today.

Since the T20 World Cup last year, the focus is mainly on the ODI World Cup that India is hosting this year. So they travelled to New Zealand, Bangladesh and hosted Sri Lanka as part of their preparation for the marquee event. Now New Zealand are here to play three more ODIs in this visit. Australia is next on the plate after BGT before the IPL kicks off.

The 2-1 come from behind win against Pakistan in the ODI series was New Zealand's first ODI series triumph in the sub-continent since defeating Bangladesh 2-1 in 2008

India have won the toss and have opted to bat

"looks a good pitch, little dry. It's about making sure we bowl under the lights and try and defend scores like we did against SL," Rohit says. "Everyone is pushing each other in the squad." KL Rahul, Iyer and Axar are replaced by Hardik, Thakur and Kishan.

Latham says he would have bowled first anyway. He says his slightly inexperienced side has plenty of games behind them, doesn't look bothered by that.

If Chahal is not yet fully recovered from his shoulder complaint, then Kuldeep could start the series, but if the Chahal is fit then the team will have to make a tough call between the two wrist spinners.

Bengal's Shahbaz Ahmed has been included as Axar's like-for-like replacement but Washington's offspin could be matched up with New Zealand's left-hander heavy line-up that could include Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Tom Latham, Michael Bracewell and Mitchell Santner

India have won toss & have to bats in 1st ODI vs NZ

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami

Tom Latham: Most of the squad has pretty much played a good number of games. Three seamers and two spinners today.

Rohit Sharma: We will bat first. Looks a good pitch, little dry. We want to make sure we want to bowl under lights and defend score. We did well against Sri Lanka, but this is a different challenge. Important for us to keep the momentum going. The spirit in the team is really good. Three changes. Hardik is back, Shardul is back. SKY and Ishan are playing as well.

India have won the toss and have opted to bat