India warm-up against Kiwis

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men will be up against a team which was blown away by both Sri Lanka and India in the Compaq Cup and did no better against a local side, Warriors, in a warm-up game here on Friday.

The pitch at the Potch Drop Club, venue for the warm-up match, produced a score of 345 by a cobbled-up West Indies in an earlier warm-up match.

Indians would surely look to put Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh in the middle for as long as possible. The match is a season opener for Gambhir, who missed the tri-series in Sri Lanka because of a groin injury, while the other three have still not yet become very comfortable with short-pitched bowling.

Teams (from): India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (capt), Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Brendon Diamanti, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Daryl Tuffey.