Captain Rohit Sharma And India On The Verge Of 'Historic First' In New Zealand

While leading a team in the testing conditions of the New Zealand could be a tough task for any captain let alone a stand-in captain. However, Rohit Sharma could not have asked for a better time to make his captaincy debut in New Zealand. With Virat Kohli rested for the remainder of the tour, Rohit Sharma will lead the side in the remaining two ODIs and the upcoming three-match T20I series.

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Snapshots from #TeamIndia's training session ahead of the 4th ODI against New Zealand #NZvIND pic.twitter.com/KTmYgLwK5n

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 30, 2019

India have already taken an unassailable three nil lead in the five-match ODI series. The Men in Blue thoroughly dominated the first three games of the series, not giving the Kiwis even a chance of putting up a challenge. Well, the momentum is firmly in India’s favour and Rohit could make full use of it to register his name in the record books. India are now on the verge of bagging a first-ever 4-0 triumph over the hosts in the 52-year history of bilateral cricket between the two teams in New Zealand. India first visited New Zealand back in 1967 but haven’t had a successful tour in the country that saw them return with a series result of 3-0 or more.

India now needs to win just one more game of the remaining two to create history. Another win will mean India leaving New Zealand with a margin of 3 matches or more for the very first time. The best result for the Men in Blue in New Zealand in an ODI series so far has been 3-1 in 2008-09 series.

Meanwhile, fielding coach R Sridhar has said India could try out some new faces in the remaining two games of the series.

“See, winning is a habit which we would obviously want to continue. When you’re one-up or three-up against a team, you want to continue with the form; you want to don’t want to let down the intensity. At the same time, we also need to give game-time to our reserves. There’s just seven games remaining for us before we play our first World Cup game. We should not end up in a situation where the main eleven has played and the reserves have not got enough game time, and then suddenly they have to play an important crucial game in the World Cup,” Sridhar said on the eve of the fourth ODI between the sides in Hamilton.