The New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on November 15 (Tuesday) announced the senior national men's team's squad for the upcoming home series against India. The Black Caps will square off against the Men in Blue in a three-match T20I series followed by a three-game ODI series. The NZC named a 13-member squad for the T20I series while it announced a 14-member squad for the ODI series. There were two glaring omissions in the list as veteran left-arm pacer Trent Boult and swashbuckling right-handed batter Martin Guptill couldn't find a place in either of the two squads.
"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," New Zealand coach Gary Stead 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," he added.
The Black Caps cricket board stuck with young talent Finn Allen, who gave a small account of his prodigious ability in white-ball cricket during the recently-concluded T20 World Cup in Australia.
"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," Stead added.
"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 (Boult and Guptill) is that there’s a lot of international cricket ahead and the door is certainly not closed to them," the Black Caps coach asserted.
Another notable point is that all-rounder James Neesham will not be part of the Kiwi squad for the 3rd ODI and he will be replaced by Henry Nicholls. Neesham has been excused from national duties for his wedding preparations.
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)
