India v New Zealand - Preview

Starts in a couple hours, and has the potential to be either really entertaining or a snoozefest. We've seen some great cricket in the last few weeks, so groundsman permitting, this should be fun to watch.

Here are the squads, with the likely XI in bold:

India: MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag (vice-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, M Vijay, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Chris Martin, Brendon McCullum, Tim McIntosh, Andy McKay, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Kane Williamson.


New Zealand are clear underdogs with their new bunch of debutants, which means that it will be an even series. India's eyes are already on the series in South Africa, as are ours, so they may or not be completely focused and will be looking to avoid any injuries, especially to the bowlers. It'd be safe to assume that the selectors are already itching to throw Deepak Chahar a Test cap after his 8-10 on first-class debut, so the last thing we need is Ishant/Sreesanth getting injured and being replaced by someone better.

Okay, maybe not the last thing.

Speaking of last things, the Ashish Nehra for Tests poll is still alive (had to revive it due to monumental failure). Voice your opinions, go Democrats, all that crap. On the right. ==>

Back to India-New Zealand.

Oh, I was done. My bad.

Milestone stuff:

  • Sachin's possible 50th Test century (the only man to do so)
  • Dravid's possible 200th catch (the only man to do so)
  • Dan the man's 100th Test (the only bespectacled Kiwi to do so)
  • Kane Williamson's possible debut (the only Kane Williamson to do so)

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