New Zealand batter Will Young revealed that many players from the team see Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as inspirations. He also isn't surprised with the fact that both of them have picked up form in ODIs. This comes ahead of India's clash against New Zealand in the first ODI of the three-match series on January 11.
"Kohli and Sharma are incredible players and they've been at the top of their game in world cricket for a long, long time. (They are the) players that I look up to, (along with) a lot of the other players in this Black Caps group, we've always looked up to too," Young told reporters.
Rohit and Virat's stellar ODI form
Both Rohit and Virat come into the series on the back of splendid performances against South Africa last month. Rohit had registered two half-centuries in the assignment while Virat had bagged the Player of the Series award for scoring two hundreds and a fifty. These phenomenal performances led to Rohit occupying the No.1 spot in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) ODI batter rankings. Virat isn't far behind either and stands on the second place. The duo will be looking to continue their sensational ODI form against New Zealand.
NZ already focused on T20 WC
Young further believes that the upcoming series against India may get "lost" in the players' minds due to the T20 World Cup being right around the corner. However, he added that a player should always show passion and motivation when it comes to international matches.
"Especially with the T20 World Cup round the corner, it is easy to have the series lost in the greater context. (But) when you're playing for your country, there should always be those two things (passion and motivation). It is a slightly different format from Test and T20 cricket, and these days you probably play a little bit less as well," Young stated.
ALSO READ: Ex-England captain lashes out at Ben Stokes & Co. for lack of preparation after Ashes debacle
Meanwhile, following the series opener in Vadodara, the second ODI of the India-New Zealand series will be held in Rajkot on January 14. The series finale will then be played at the Holkar stadium in Indore on January 18. It remains to be seen as to which team will come out on top in these highly-anticipated encounters.
India's squad for New Zealand ODIs: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal.