The upcoming test series against New Zealand will kick-start India’s long season of test cricket where India will play host to New Zealand, England and Australia. Together it constitutes 13 test matches spread over a period of close to three months.

The Kiwis who are already in India have played a warm up match against Mumbai. Although the match ended in a draw the Kiwi bowlers had to toil for wickets as Mumbai batsmen picked them off for runs. 

New Zealand Up For The Challenge

Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson has already spoken to the media saying the upcoming tour against India will be a challenging one. He also said that they have a squad which can play according to the conditions of the subcontinent.

Keeping the sub continental conditions in mind, New Zealand have picked three spinners in the side in Mitchell Santner, Mark Craig and the Ludhiana born Kiwi spinner Ish Sodhi. It was the pair of Santner and Sodhi that bamboozled the Indian batsmen when they faced defeat in the group stage of World T20 championship. New Zealand lost their semi final to the eventual World T20 champions West Indies earlier this year.

The pace bowling department will be spearheaded by the ever reliable Trent Boult who has plenty of experience of playing in Indian conditions.

Their batting line up with the likes of skipper Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill boasts of having a lot of sub continental experience thanks to their IPL stint. Coach Mike Hesson is contemplating to use wicket keeper Luke Ronchi as an opener. The Kiwis have depth in the opening department with Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and BJ Watling.

The Kiwi squad looks to have all the places covered and formidable to pose a challenge to the Indian team who will look to field their best eleven on the day.

India set for New Zealand Test

Coming to the dissection of the Indian team, the selectors have chosen their best 15 players for the series keeping every department of the game in perspective.

Captain Virat Kohli leads them with the bat with the likes of Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma giving him plenty of depth. After a good Duleep Trophy final, India’s no 3 Cheteshwar Pujara  is back amongst the runs. At number 6 and 7 there is Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin, both of whom had a good outing against West Indies with the bat.

The spin attack is yet again led by Ravichandran Ashwin who will have Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja for company to terrorize the Kiwi batsmen. Ishant Sharma will lead the pace attack with Mohd Shami, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar making up the rest of the pace attack.

New Zealand doesn’t have happy memories of their last tour to India when they were whitewashed by an Indian team led by MS Dhoni as they lost the series 2-0. This Indian team is led by Virat Kohli who has won his first three series as skipper and is looking to win his fourth on the run.

This series by all means promises to be a fantastic series as India gets ready for a long season of hosting and some tough cricket ahead.

The venues for the three test match series are Kanpur, Kolkata and Indore with Kanpur set to host India’s 500th test match and dish out a sporting wicket as per curator Shiv Kumar. 

India Squad

Virat Kohli(c), Lokesh Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav

New Zealand Squad

Kane Williamson(c), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, James Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Ross Taylor, Neil Wagner, BJ Watling

For complete fixture visit here.

Picture Courtesy: IndiaToday, ESPNCricinfo