NZ to field first in the decider, both teams unchanged
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson decided to put India in after winning the toss at the series decider in Kanpur.
New Delhi: New Zealand captain Kane Williamson decided to put India in after winning the toss at the series decider in Kanpur.
There were uncanny similarities in views of both Williamson and Kohli as both wanted to field first keeping the dew factor in mind later in the evening.
India have gone in with an unchanged playing XI which means Kuldeep Yadav will have to wait for his first game in front of his home crowd.
The Kiwis also decided against tinkering with their team from the last ODI.
New Zealand wins the toss. Elects to bowl first in the 3rd and final ODI #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/fmwuOUvjKM
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 29, 2017
The last time India played a series decider was against the same opposition exactly a year ago in Visakhapatnam. India thrashed New Zealand by 190 runs in that game to claim the series and despite the impressive show by the visitors, India would still be favorites to complete another series win by toppling the Kiwis in the final ODI at Kanpur.
The rejoicing factor for both the teams is the weather. The temperature is far less than what was in the first two ODIs in the western part of the country.
The Indian bowling led by their new ball bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah has been outstanding throughout the season, they orchestrated the New Zealand collapse in 2nd ODI at Pune and will look to the do the same here.
If there is any point of concern for Virat Kohli that will be lack of high scores from the top order. The No.4 spot still remains a lump in the throat. Dinesh Karthik’s assuring half century in the previous ODI looks to have settled the debate for this ODI at least but with Kohli and Ravi Shahstri, one can never bet against an experiment or two.
Stunningly India have heavily relied on their bowlers to pull off matches in past two series but Kohli would hope his batters would step up with the series on line.
IND XI: RG Sharma, S Dhawan, V Kohli, D Karthik, K Jadhav, MS Dhoni, H Pandya, A Patel, B Kumar, J Bumrah, Y Chahal
NZ XI: M Guptill, C Munro, K Williamson, R Taylor, T Latham, H Nicholls, C de Grandhomme, M Santner, A Milne, T Southee, T Boult
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