Opening batsman Rohit Sharma became the 14th Indian player to play 200 one-day internationals. While accepting that it there has been a lot of ups and downs in his playing career so far, the 31-year-old said that the “200th game is special”.
“Yeah, 200th game is special. Lots of ups and downs but I am happy where I am,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Sharma as saying.
The right-hand batsman is playing as a stand-in skipper in the fourth ODI against New Zealand, which marks his 200th ODI appearance, as Virat Kohli has been rested for the last two matches.
Meanwhile, India has lost the toss and choose to bat first in the fourth match. Top-order batsman Shubman has been handed over his debut cap in the match by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Having already pocketed the series 3-0, India has consisted of two newcomers in the team- Gill and Khaleel Ahmed- with the aim of testing the bench strength.
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“Gill is a very promising talent. He has shown a lot of promise in the past. We are looking to bat first as well. We wanted to get some bases covered before the next series. 3-0 is a great achievement. And we want to finish off really well,” Sharma said after the toss.
Following are the playing XI of Indian and New Zealand:
India- Rohit Sharma (capt), Ambati Rayudu, Shubman Gill, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav.
New Zealand- Martin Guptill, ), Todd Astle, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wk), Mitchell Santner, Jimmy Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Matt Henry, Trent Boult,Kane Williamson (capt), Henry Nicholls,