India vs New Zealand Highlights 1st ODI at Vadodara: Rahul and Rana's cameos steer Men in Blue to four-wicket victory

India vs New Zealand Highlights 1st ODI: India take on New Zealand in the opening One-Day International of the three-match series on Sunday, January 11. The match starts 1:30 PM IST at the BCA Stadium in Vadodara with the toss taking place at 1:00 PM.

The match is taking place in Vadodara which sees the men’s international side of India return to the city after a long wait of more than a decade and a half. The last ODI played in Vadodara was in 2010 between India and New Zealand. The current head coach Gautam Gambhir had scored an unbeaten century to guide India to victory then and he will once again be looking to guide the team to a positive result, this time from the dressing room.

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BCA Stadium makes men’s international debut

This is also the first ever men’s international match at the newly-built BCA Stadium in Vadodara. Earlier, the Reliance Stadium used to host Vadodara’s international games. Now, that venue has been discarded in favour of the new one.

Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja are the only two active members from the sides that played the last men’s international match in Vadodara. Kohli too had scored an unbeaten half-century then and he would be eager to better that score and get a century this time. The two players returning to the side, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, too would be aiming to get big runs under their belt while Rohit Sharma will again try to propel the side to rapid start.

Mohammed Siraj will return to lead the pace-bowling attack and that could push one of Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana or Prasidh Krishna out of the playing XI.

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant has been ruled out of the series but that would not affect India much as he was expected to be the back-up to KL Rahul who handles the gloves in this format.

For New Zealand, a lot of young players are getting chance and they would like to prove a point and make space for themselves in the team with an eye on the 2027 Cricket World Cup.

India vs New Zealand 1st ODI squad

India: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

New Zealand: Michael Bracewell (C), Adithya Ashok, Kristian Clarke, Josh Clarkson, Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Mitch Hay (WK), Kyle Jamieson, Nick Kelly, Jayden Lennox, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae, Will Young