After the immense success of the series against Australia, Team India baited its clutches on New Zealand. And the first encounter was held at Wankhede in Mumbai. It was always special for the Indian team to play in this ground as they won the 2011 World Cup here.
However, the beginning is so far very well for India riding on the skipper Virat Kohli’s massive century, dragging the score to 280 in 50 overs. Every batsman gave their best adding maximum runs to the team’s total. But the bowlers couldn’t restrict the visitors scoring runs and lost the match.
Despite losing the match, it was Indian skipper who made the audience stuck to their seats with his recording breaking ton. It was his individual 31st century in ODIs surpassing former Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s 30. We all know that Virat is a run machine, but the way he batted in the yesterday’s match was appreciable.
Here comes a shocking news. In spite of scoring his century at Wankhede, the selectors might rest Virat Kohli for the upcoming 3-match T20I series against New Zealand starting from November 1. The committee led by MSK Prasad is all set to meet in Mumbai on Monday and will pick the team for T20Is and the Test series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka respectively.
Kohli and his men are constantly playing cricket since Champions Trophy in June and will play continuously until the end of South Africa tour. The skipper has been playing all the formats and after the three ODIs against the Kiwis he would have played 3 Tests, 23 ODIs and 3 T20Is since June donning the Indian jersey.
If Virat is given rest, then who is going to lead the team in his absence?
If the selectors decide to give some time off to the regular skipper, it would be Rohit Sharma who will be given the chance of leading the Men in Blue. The 3 T20Is are scheduled to be played in New Delhi, Rajkot and Thiruvananthapuram.
The Test series against Sri Lanka will commence on November 16 as the hectic home season for India continues. The Test series will see Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja returning back to the International squad. The spin duo was rested for the limited overs leg during the Sri Lanka tour.
However, Kuldeep and Chahal took up the responsibility of spin and had been doing the duty well since then. According to the reports, there is a proposal of taking Kuldeep into the Test team as the third specialist spinner. The Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha are also expected to be back barring last minute injuries.
Even KL Rahul who has been dropped from the ODI side will return to the side with the preferred opener Murali Vijay once again injured. Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav are the leading bowlers when it comes to longest format and there should be no problems for them to don the white jersey.
So, we have to wait and see for the official announcement by the BCCI and the Indian teamselection committee.
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