The Virat Kohli-led side will use this practice game against New Zealand to pick the right combination for their opening World Cup 2019 contest against South Africa on June 5
London: India will official start ICC World Cup 2019 preparations in England today (May 25) when they face New Zealand in a warm-up match at The Oval in London.
The Virat Kohli-led side will use this practice game to pick the right combination for their opening World Cup contest against South Africa on June 5.
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The players will get another chance to hit form when India take on Bangladesh on May 28 (Tuesday) in Cardiff.
Ahead of Saturday’s game, India had a scare when all-rounder Vijay Shankar was injured in the nets. He was hit on his right forearm while batting.
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Kedar Jadhav continued his process to full recovery and fitness after suffering a left shoulder injury during the IPL. It is unsure if either player will feature in Saturday’s (May 25) warm-up game against the Black Caps.
Most of the Indian players are match-fit considering they featured in the recently concluded IPL 2019.
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With India being one of the favourites at the 10-team tournament and the expectations back home, the ‘Men in Blue’ will be hoping to start off with a win on Saturday even though it is a warm-up game.
For the Kiwis, some of the players including skipper Kane Williamson were part of the IPL. Williamson led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) to the playoffs.
"There are no chances of rain with partly cloudy conditions expected for most part of the day. The Oval has traditionally been a high scoring venue and teams might look to chase keeping the flat batting conditions in mind. However, dry weather and large square boundaries might just bring spinners into play," a report on ICC's World Cup website said.
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Talking ahead of the team’s departure, Kohli had said the World Cup in England and Wales would be “most challenging”. The ICC’s quadrennial showpiece event runs from May 30 to July 14 with all 10 teams playing each other one in the round robin format with the top-four making the semi-finals.
Squads
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Tom Blundell (wicketkeeper), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wickeetkeeper), Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
Match starts 3 pm IST (10.30 am local)
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