India tour of New Zealand: Kane Williamson-led ODI & T20I squads announced; Guptill & Boult axed
New Zealand have announced their ODI and T20I squads for the upcoming home series against India as Kane Williamson-led side has made a bold decision to key senior members. In an announcement made on Tuesday (November 15), Martin Guptill and Trent Boult have been axed from the squad as the new guns have been given opportunities. New Zealand will play Hardik Pandya-led India on Friday (November 18) in Wellington in the first T20I as both teams look to find momentum after the semifinal exit in the T20 World Cup 2022.
The Black Caps will take on the powerful India line-up in a total of six white-ball contests (three T20Is and three ODIs) starting on Friday and the Kiwis announced a pair of 13-player squads for the matches on Tuesday.
Skipper Kane Williamson will once again lead New Zealand during the series, but there is no room for veteran opener Martin Guptill and left-arm quick Trent Boult.
The Kiwis have opted to use the promising Finn Allen ahead of Guptill at the top of the order in recent times and the 23-year-old right-hander is once again preferred for the India series.
Boult, meanwhile, will also be on the sidelines after he made the decision earlier this year to turn his back on his contract with New Zealand Cricket in order to spend more time with his family and concentrate on opportunities in domestic leagues around the world.
New Zealand coach Gary Stead said it was a difficult decision to omit Boult and Guptill, but said the door was still open for the pair to return to the international fold.
"When Trent opted out of his NZC contract in August, we indicated that priority would be given to those players with either central or domestic contracts, and that’s been the case here," he said.
"We’re all aware of Trent’s world class ability, but at this time - as we build towards more global events, we want to give opportunities and experiences to others.
"The emergence and success of Finn at the top of the order in white-ball cricket means a guy of the class of Martin Guptill misses out – that’s just the nature of high performance sport.
"With the 50-over World Cup less than a year away we’re keen to give Finn every opportunity to keep gaining ODI experience, especially against quality opposition such as India.
"The message to both those players is that there’s a lot of international cricket ahead and the door is certainly not closed to them,” the coach concluded.
New Zealand T20I squad: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Blair Tickner
New Zealand ODI squad: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee
India T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik
India ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Umran Malik
T20I Schedule:
Wellington (November 18)
Tauranga (November 20)
Napier (November 22)
ODI Schedule:
Auckland (November 25)
Hamilton (November 27)
Christchurch (November 30)
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