India vs New Zealand 2016: India's possible playing XI
After beating West Indies 2-0 in their own backyard, Virat Kohli and his men are set to kick start their home season with a three-match series against New Zealand at Kanpur on 22nd September. The outcome of this series is very crucial because India will take on England and Australia later this season, as they look to regain the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings.
The selectors have announced a 15 member squad for the series and it includes all the players who took the field against West Indies. Finalising the playing XI will be a huge headache for the team management as they have several players fighting for just one spot. Let us take a look at how the Indian team will line-up when they take on the Kiwis in the first test at Kanpur:
Squad: Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Openers
In the last couple of years, Murali Vijay has been India’s consistent batsman in the longer format. Though he played just one match in the series against West Indies, he is certain to make it to the playing XI that will take the field against New Zealand in the first test at Kanpur.
Alongside Murali Vijay, there are two other openers in the squad. Shikhar Dhawan has been Vijay’s partner for a while now but he has been highly inconsistent opening the batting for India in tests.
On the other hand, KL Rahul has been a revelation since making his debut against Australia in 2014. In spite of scoring a century against the Aussies at Sydney, his place in the squad was not certain, but his heroics in 2016 has made sure that dropping Rahul from the team will not be the right thing to do.
In all likelihood, the team management will prefer to open with Murali Vijay and KL Rahul against the Kiwis.