The Indian squad consists of many players who have not yet played a T20I in New Zealand including skipper Virat Kohli.
Jasprit Bumrah (L) and Virat Kohli. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)
The five-match T20I series between New Zealand and India is all set to begin from Friday. The first match will be played in Auckland on 24 January. The Indian team has already reached Auckland. As far as the Indian squad is concerned, other than injured Shikhar Dhawan, the other members are prepping up for the much-anticipated tour. The Indian squad consists of many players who have not yet played a T20I in New Zealand including skipper Virat Kohli.
India had last toured New Zealand in 2019
The Indian Cricket Team has till date played only a couple of T20 series. While the first one of them was organised in 2009, the second series between the two teams was played 10 years later in 2019. Since Virat has made his debut for India in 2010, he was clearly not in the scheme of things in 2009.
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On the other hand, Virat was rested for the T20I series in 2019 and Rohit Sharma was made the captain and thus Kohli missed out on the opportunity of playing a T20I in New Zealand.
These players featured in the last tour to New Zealand
The Indian team which had gone on to tour New Zealand in 2019 had four players of the current squad. This includes Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant and Yuzvendra Chahal. Although Dhawan was initially named in the squad, his injury has ruled him out of the T20Is.
His replacement (yet to be announced) most probably would not have any prior experience of playing in New Zealand conditions.
Although Ravindra Jadeja also has prior experience of playing in New Zealand, he had played not in 2019 but in 2009 under MS Dhoni.
These players are yet to play a match in New Zealand
The list includes Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur.
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