The Indian cricket team will play the second ODI against hosts New Zealand at the Eden Park Stadium in Auckland ODI on Saturday. Team India can remain under pressure before this match. They are under pressure to return to the series after losing their first ODI. A three-match ODI series is being played between the two teams. After losing the first match, for India, now both the remaining matches of the series have become ‘do or die’. If they lose in one of these, they will lose the series. On the other hand, New Zealand has to win only one of the remaining two matches to win the series.
In the first ODI match played at Sedan Park in Hamilton, India scored a score of 347 runs. New Zealand had also achieved this. In this way, host New Zealand took a 1-0 lead over India. India’s bowling was weak in the first ODI. Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja looted runs. Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were also unable to do anything in front of veteran Ross Taylor.
Ross Taylor won the team unbeaten. He also got along well with Henry Nicholls, caretaker captain Tom Latham. It was the pair of Latham and Taylor, who batted excellently in the middle overs and snatched the match from India’s grip. Both these batsmen had knitted the innings on the excellent start given by Martin Guptill and Nicholls.
These four can become a headache once again for Indian bowlers. Indian captain Virat Kohli and team management will definitely come down with a new strategy learned from the first match. Even if there are some changes in bowling, it will not be surprising. Navdeep Saini can be replaced in place of Shardul Thakur. It is also possible that Yuzvendra Chahal is given a chance. Harbhajan Singh has suggested taking Chahal in the team in place of Kedar Jadhav.
Talking about Indian batting, Shreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul are in form. Where Iyer had scored the first century of his career, he said that the ability to bat No. 4 is in him. At the same time, Rahul proved his utility at number-5. However, once again, Kohli could not convert a half-century into a century.
In the first match, India gave a chance to the new opening pair of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal. Both gave the team a decent start but could not convert them in the big innings. Once again, the team will be expected to have a decent start from these two. Kiwi bowlers face the same challenge that Indian bowlers are facing, to stop the flow of runs. The Indian team will also have to improve its fielding as it was costly for Ross Taylor to miss the catch. Fielding Coach R. Sridhar has accepted that the Indian team is not level in this matter.
Teams will be selected from these:
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Lokesh Rahul, Jaspreet Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shivam Dubey, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Henry Nicholls, Martin Guptill, Colin de Grandhom, Ross Taylor, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee Hamish Bennett, Tom Blundell, Kyle Jamieson, Mark Chapman.
