India visit New Zealand for a crucial tour which will map out India’s path for the T20 World Cup happening later this year. The ‘Men in Blue’ will play five T20Is, three ODIs and two Tests in the island nation. The first match, a T20I, will take place on Friday, January 24 at Eden Park, Auckland.
With preparations for the World Cup on top of their agenda, India will take on an injury-hit New Zealand during which seam-friendly wickets would be a major challenge for the visitors. Despite injury issues to key white-ball personnel like Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar this past home season, the bench strength has come across adequate and raring to go for challenges ahead.
Here are five players from the Indian team that are worth keeping an eye on.
1. Prithvi Shaw:
This series could very well be the series where Prithvi Shaw finally gets going and lives up to people’s expectations. Shaw showed a brilliant return to form when he took to field against the Kiwis in India A’s ODI warm-up match and the unofficial ODI. After a year full of bans and injuries, Shaw will hope to finally capitalise on the chance he gets. Skipper Virat Kohli had hinted that Prithvi could very well be handed his ODI debut, slotting him in as an opener along with Rohit Sharma.
2. Jasprit Bumrah:
The lethal toe-crusher will hope that he gets going this series after a less-than-impressive showing against the Aussies. Bumrah’s seam-bowling capabilities will also be tested in the seam-friendly wickets. The bowler will back himself to perform well and get back to the form he was in before getting injured in September. If this man has his way in New Zealand, then it would prove very difficult for the Kiwis to stop India.
The Karnataka batsman has been one of the only viable solutions in an otherwise brittle Indian middle order. In and out of the team frequently, Pandey is used to playing whenever chance beckons him. The duo of Shreyas Iyer and Pandey has been very effective in handling the batting lineup when the openers have failed. Even Kohli has hinted that Manish could feature ahead of Rishabh Pant in T20Is for India. Meanwhile, Shoaib Akhtar has also backed him to fill up the void left by MS Dhoni in the middle-order.
4. Mayank Agarwal:
Coming into the fray at the back of a very impressive 2019, Mayank Agarwal has seen his career resurrected after performing splendidly against South Africa and emerging as India’s breakthrough player in the series. He will be hoping to emulate the same form against the Kiwis when the two sides meet for red-ball cricket. Agarwal would count himself unlucky to have missed out on a spot in the limited-overs format. He is one player who can prove to be the vital difference between the two teams. Plus, he’s an excellent fielder.
The 27-year-old has impressed in the blue colours for India and it could very well be time for him to do the same in whites. With Ishant Sharma doubtful for the Test series, Saini could get a shot in the Test squad. In the recently concluded Sri Lanka series, Navdeep grabbed everyone’s attention by putting a man-of-the-series performance against them. His ability to bowl consistently above 140 kph made him quite lethal. He also performed admirably against Australia. He will hope that he could pull off another flawless display against the Kiwis.
