Prithvi Shaw To Debut As Virat Kohli Confirms India's New Opening Combination For New Zealand ODIs

India will have a new opening combination in the upcoming three-match ODI series against New Zealand. Both their regular openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are out of the series with their respective injuries. Dhawan, in fact, could not even come to New Zealand after injuring his shoulder during the third ODI against Australia last month.

On the other hand, Rohit Sharma suffered a calf injury while batting in the fifth and final T20I against New Zealand on Sunday. He will now travel to the National Cricket Academy for the rehabilitation program. Uncapped Mayank Agarwal has replaced him in the ODI squad while Prithvi Shaw was named as Dhawan’s replacement.

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The new opening combination:

On the eve of the first ODI in Hamilton, India skipper Virat Kohli confirmed that Prithvi Shaw will start in the playing eleven. Virat Kohli also stated that KL Rahul would continue to bat in middle-order which effectively means India will have a new opening combination in the series.

Mayank Agarwal is now likely to open the innings alongside Prithvi Shaw. Neither Agarwal nor Shaw has debuted in the 50-over format. Agarwal had earned his maiden ODI call-up during last year’s World Cup as an injury replacement but is yet to play an ODI. On the other hand, Shaw earned his maiden ODI call up for the upcoming series.

“It is unfortunate that Rohit cannot be part of the ODI series, the impact he has had is there for everyone to see. We do not have any ODI tournaments to look up to, so it is ideal for him to get recovered. In ODI cricket, Prithvi is definitely going to start, KL will play in the middle-order. We want him to get accustomed to keep and play in the middle,” Virat Kohli told reporters ahead of the first ODI.

“In ODIs, we played a really hard-fought series against Australia, we lost the first match, but then came back to win the series 2-1. We will take a lot of confidence from that series, we will try to play positive cricket. We have to believe in our own plans, we know that New Zealand will not give up and we need to be vary of that,” he added.

The Men in Blue will be high on confidence after winning the T20I series 5-0 and will be looking to continue their winning start to the tour. After the ODIs, both the teams will play a couple of Tests, starting on February 21.

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