New Zealand, who is currently trailing the five-match ODI series against India 0-2, on Monday, won the toss and chose to bat at the Bay Oval. Kane Williamson-led side made one change, with Mitchell Santner replacing Colin de Grandhomme.
However, when Virat Kohli came to speak, he dropped a bombshell to announce two changes. MS Dhoni, who has been in tremendous form in 2019 and has rediscovered his finishing prowess, was ruled out of the game due to a sore hamstring while Kohli announced that Hardik Pandya replaced Vijay Shankar in the playing XI.
The absence of Dhoni is a major blow for India as the former India skipper was finishing games in his trademark style during the ODIs against Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, after he hit a slow fifty which resulted in criticism, Dhoni responded with magnificent knocks of unbeaten 55 and 68 not-out to give India their first bilateral ODI series win on the Australian soil.
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New Zealand and India are playing the third ODI at the same venue where the Men in Blue scored 324 runs in the second ODI. “Under the lights, we felt the ball came on better. We were quite satisfied, I personally would like to get the scoring rate up. In the last game, we could’ve got to 340,” felt the Indian skipper.
New Zealand playing XI: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (w), Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Doug Bracewell, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
India playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (w), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal
