IND vs NZ: India preparing for ODI World Cup under Dhawan's captaincy, special focus will be on the selection of players

Shikhar Dhawan India vs New Zealand: The Indian team, captained by Shikhar Dhawan, will be on the field for the ODI series against New Zealand from Friday. With the start of this series, the Indian team will start preparing for the ODI World Cup. Dhawan is the temporary captain of the Indian team. But it will not have much effect on the players. India suffered a 0-3 series defeat at the hands of New Zealand in 2020 under the leadership of Virat Kohli and the team would like to forget this defeat of the past and start afresh.

Only 11 months are left before the start of the ODI World Cup in India and everyone will get an initial idea about India's middle order and bowling attack from the series starting on Friday.

Skipper Rohit Sharma, talismanic batsman Virat Kohli, team management darling KL Rahul, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and ODI all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are missing out on five of India's senior players in this series and hence it is somewhat unknown Will go in which direction the team is moving forward.

All these senior players will now have to play more and more ODI cricket, starting with the Bangladesh series. After his return, there will be a lot of changes in the team composition. Shikhar Dhawan is leading the team in the absence of these senior players. He has scored almost 1000 runs in ODIs in the last two years. In the last two years, he has played only in this format. If seen from this perspective, both Kohli and Rohit have played only one-third ODIs as compared to Dhawan as he focused more on Tests and T20s.

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill proved himself as an opener in ODIs. In all the ODIs he has played so far, his average is more than 57 runs per innings and the strike rate is more than 100. In such a situation, India will have three players Rohit, Dhawan, and Gill as openers.

Rahul has been playing in the middle order in ODIs. In the middle order, India also has Shreyas Iyer who has done consistently well despite having trouble playing short-pitched balls. Suryakumar Yadav is currently running in excellent form and if he remains fit then he cannot be dropped. Sanju Samson also cannot be ignored for long, while it would not be right to exclude Deepak Hooda due to his all-around game.

If we talk about the series, then three ODIs will be played within five days, and in such a situation, the fast bowlers will have to recover from fatigue as soon as possible. Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur can be entrusted with the new ball. Both of them will also provide the option of batting in the lower order.

Arshdeep Singh can be the third option but he is playing continuously and in such a situation Kuldeep Sen or Umran Malik can get a chance. Among the spinners, Washington Sundar is likely to get a place in the playing XI. Eden Park's ground is small and in such a situation, Dhawan will have to consider whether to play with an additional fast bowler or keep an additional spinner in the form of Kuldeep Yadav.

The New Zealand team is almost going to remain the same which took part in the T20 series. His bowling attack is very strong and includes swingers Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, and spinner Mitchell Santner. If all-rounders Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham are also included in this, then New Zealand has enough bowling options.

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