Shreyas Iyer captains India in an ODI for the first time, and one win at Bay Oval seals the New Zealand series

Shreyas Iyer leads India in a one-day international for the first time on Friday, 13 November, and one win at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui gives him the series. India are 2-0 up with two to play after the washout in Hamilton, so New Zealand can only draw level by winning both games at the same ground. Play starts at 3pm local time, which is 7:30am IST.

A win would also be India’s first ODI series win in New Zealand since 2019, when they won 4-1.

Why Iyer has the job

Shubman Gill captained the first three games and has now gone to Wellington with KL Rahul and Anshul Kamboj to prepare for the Tests. The first one starts at the Basin Reserve on 19 November. Ishan Kishan is Iyer’s vice-captain and takes the gloves from Rahul. Tilak Varma, Yash Thakur and Kumar Kushagra, a 22-year-old wicketkeeper from Jharkhand, are among the players brought in for the last two matches. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli stay on.

Losing Kamboj takes away the bowler who caused the most trouble after Gurnoor Brar. Kamboj has four wickets at 11.75 in the series. Brar has seven at 10.57 from his two games and is the leading wicket-taker on either side.

New Zealand have gone short at him

The captaincy comes at an awkward time for Iyer’s batting. Questions about him against the short ball have followed him for most of his career, and this tour has brought them back. He has 45 runs from two innings, and New Zealand’s quicks have targeted him with the short ball in both. In Auckland, ten of his 15 runs came from boundaries behind the wicket off short balls he did not control. In Wellington, Kyle Jamieson got one to rear into his throat and he was caught behind.

Cricinfo’s ball-by-ball data has him facing 24 short or short-of-a-length balls from the fast bowlers in the series, and playing a false shot at ten of them. That Wellington delivery was close to unplayable, and Iyer is not the only one struggling. Axar Patel has been out twice in the same way. Luke Ronchi, New Zealand’s batting coach, said the surfaces “haven’t been easy for anyone on the short ball”.

The weather should help. The forecast for Friday is sunny with almost no chance of rain, so this could be the first game of the tour to go the full 50 overs. Both of India’s wins so far were cut short and decided on DLS.

The selection calls

Iyer’s first decisions as captain are about the bowling. Mohammed Siraj has not bowled on the tour and was left out again for Hamilton, where India named an unchanged XI. Kuldeep Yadav has not played either. A dry day at Bay Oval could give one of them a game.

Kishan opening with Rohit and Ruturaj Gaikwad coming into the middle order look like the obvious changes to fill the gaps left by Gill and Rahul. Ambati Rayudu has said Kishan should open.

New Zealand without five Test players

Mitchell Santner’s side has been cut harder. Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips and Nathan Smith left for the Test camp after Hamilton, and Mitchell was the top run-scorer in the series with 83. Devon Conway is out with concussion, and Lockie Ferguson has not recovered from the calf injury he picked up in the T20Is. Blair Tickner is still serving a seven-day stand-down after being hit on the helmet in Wellington, so he cannot play until Sunday.

Matt Henry and Jamieson have stayed with the one-day squad instead of joining the Test group, and Jacob Duffy has six wickets in the series. Finn Allen is in the squad for the last two games.

India at Bay Oval

India have played three ODIs at the ground. They won both in January 2019, by 90 runs after making 324 for 4 and then by seven wickets, which put them 3-0 up in that series. The third, in February 2020, went New Zealand’s way by five wickets and completed a 3-0 whitewash. Iyer made 62 that day, adding 100 for the fourth wicket with KL Rahul, who went on to 112. The full numbers for the venue are in our Bay Oval records and stats guide.

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