India vs New Zealand | R Sridhar hints at India giving chance to reserve players in Hamilton

It is a happy headache for the Indian team that they can afford to bring a new set of players in the ODIs without worrying much about anyone’s absence. They are functioning like a team on a mission and the bench strengths give them the problem of plenty now. It was the type of situation that Virat Kohli always spoke about and now that he has taken a break from his insane schedule, it opens up a spot in the middle-order which most probably will go to Shubman Gill now.

R Sridhar almost confirmed the same experiment and stated that with just seven games to go before the World Cup, India are willing to utilize these two dead rubbers against New Zealand to give some game-time to their bench players.

"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,” Sridhar was quoted as saying by PTI.

“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. And that is what we would like to achieve from the remaining two games in this series and no better place than New Zealand to simulate the conditions in England in June."

India’s recent ODI dominance was head and shoulders above every team now a days and for the first time, they have pacers who commanded places in the side with their solid performances. Apart from the last series loss to England in England, if there was one team who challenged India in any conditions, it has to be New Zealand, who forced series deciders twice in their last two trips and made India’s life difficult the last time they toured the country in 2014. Sridhar, however, opined that the insane amount of work that went behind it came out in the form of results.

"We are playing some good cricket more the last few months, especially with the white ball. I think all the pieces are falling together. If you see the team, it's quite an experienced unit. The top six have all been there right from the 2013 Champions Trophy. So fitness levels are really gone up with a trainer Basu Shankar working very hard. And the kind of effort our bowling coach Arun has put in with the bowlers - that's what really stands out.

"India was always a fabulous batting country but it's the way the bowlers have started picking up wickets during our different phases of the game. Bhuvi and Shami are potent forces with the new ball and then the spinners come in. Not only against New Zealand, they did that against South Africa earlier in 2018, when we won 5-1. They did that against England, against West Indies. They did it in the Asia Cup.

"The experience of the team combined with the kind of fitness levels, and the bowling which has gone about ten notches higher is making it look like a complete unit. Augers very well for the World Cup."

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