IND vs NZ 1st ODI: Rohit Sharma and co. are on their road to the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup and they have authoritatively started their journey. The men in blue inflicted an ODI series defeat on Sri Lanka by a margin of 3-0 and they now move on to stronger opponents, the Kiwis. The New Zealand cricket team in many ways has been the arch-rival of India. They eliminated India from the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup and went on to defeat them in the finals of the World Test Championship that was played in 2021.
Ahead of the first ODI that will be played in Hyderabad, India will have to take some tough calls. KL Rahul is not a part of the Indian squad for the upcoming series, whereas Rishabh Pant after his car crash is out of the Indian setup for a long time. This leaves the team composition in a very confusing state. India can either play Kishan or Gill as far as the opening slot is considered. The Gujarat Titans batter, Shubman Gill is coming off a stellar ton against Sri Lanka and it will be difficult for the Indian team management to leave him out. On the other hand, there is Ishan Kishan. Vikram Rathour and co. are hell-bent on persisting with Kishan for the opening slot. The problem lies with the wicketkeeping slot. Rahul and Pant are unavailable and the team needs to fill that spot.
This is how Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan can play in the same eleven.
If Ishan Kishan gets picked, he will probably open with Rohit Sharma. The Mumbai Indians youngster recently scored 210 against Bangladesh and he can take on the opposition. If Virat Kohli drops himself to number 4, Shubman Gill can take the number 3 spot and contribute. This leaves Shreyas Iyer's feat hanging in the balance. As of now, it is being reported that Iyer has some back issues and if he misses out, then Surya can bat at number 5 followed by Hardik at number 6.
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India ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammad Shami, Umran Malik
