After the disappointment of losing the T20 World Cup final to Australia at the weekend New Zealand are straight back into action when they head to Jaipur, India for the first contest of a three match series.
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
India
India went into the recent T20 World Cup as favourites in the outright betting but it all went wrong early doors with a 10 wicket defeat to Pakistan followed by an 8 wicket loss to their opponents here, New Zealand. That took qualification for the semi finals out of India's hands and although they reeled off wins against Afghanistan (66 runs), Scotland (8 wickets) and Namibia (9 wickets) they finished third in their pool, 2 points behind New Zealand and 4 shy of Pakistan.
India have named a 16 man squad to be skippered by Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja are all rested and India will select from the following pool of players.
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj
New Zealand
New Zealand were beaten by Pakistan by 5 wickets in their opening T20 World Cup match before that 8 wicket win over India put them back in contention. They had to be foot perfect from there onwards and although they made harder than expected work of Scotland (won by 16 runs), they held their nerve to see off Namibia (52 runs) and Afghanistan (8 wickets) to reach the last 4.
They went on to beat England in the semi finals by 5 wickets, pulling off a thrilling run chase in the process.
In Sunday's final against Australia in Dubai New Zealand posted 172/4 with Williamson top scoring with 85. They were very much in the contest and took an early wicket but Australia powered away to an 8 wicket victory with 7 balls to spare.
NZ Squad: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (c), Tim Seifert (wk), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi, Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 17 times with India winning 6 to New Zealand's 9 and 2 ties
In the T20 World Cup Super 12's on 31st October India managed to score just 110/7 with Jadeja's 26 not out the top score. New Zealand crashed off the chase in 14.3 overs for an 8 wicket victory, Daryl Mitchell top scored with 49 and Sodhi (2/17) was Man of the Match.
The most recent series between the sides came in New Zealand at the start of this year and NZ won 3 of the 5 matches with the other 2 finishing tied.
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The Betting
India are currently trading at around 5/10 to win the game and New Zealand can be backed at around 33/20
KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma are 9/4 joint favourites to top score for India, Williamson is 5/2 favourite to do likewise for NZ with Guptill and Daryl Mitchell are available at 11/4.
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
NZ (bar Conway) have their T20 World Cup squad to select from but how they cope with such a quick turnaround from the disappointment of losing Sunday's final has to be a concern.
I'll go with the top NZ bowler market where Ish Sodhi, who had a great World Cup, is my pick.
Bets: Top NZ Wicket Taker Ish Sodhi at 11/4
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Note, odds quoted are subject to change
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