New Zealand vs India: 3 Reasons why New Zealand start as slight favorites against India
After registering their first ever bilateral ODI series win in Australia, India plays New Zealand in a five-match ODI series and then a three-match T20I series. Winning against the Blackcaps will be a hard task for Team India as the Kiwis are a strong white-ball outfit.
New Zealand has been pretty clinical at home in recent times. Most pitches in New Zealand have been pretty flat and so we might witness some really high scoring games in the upcoming weeks.
It will be a good test for India considering that the World Cup will be played in pretty similar conditions. Looking at the way these two teams stack up right now, this is going to be a cracker of a series.
New Zealand start as slight favorites in this series against India. So let’s have a look at the three reasons as to why New Zealand start as favorites.
#3 India still finding the right team balance
With Hardik Pandya still missing from the squad, India will find it difficult to get their team balance right. Due to Pandya’s absence, India has to play Jadeja and leave out one of their wrist spinners.
Kohli loves to have both the wrist spinners in the team as they pick up wickets in the middle overs, especially on flat wickets. If India doesn’t play Jadeja and go with the two wrist spinners, then their batting will get weak as Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be slotted at No.7.
Vijay Shankar hasn’t played much of international cricket and one cannot trust him to play the role of the all-rounder at the moment. If India gets the right balance with six bowling options and batting till No.7, then India will put up a really strong fight in the series. It is important that India find that in the early stages of the series.