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Picture Credit: Twitter

The New Zealand Cricket (NCZ) announced its squads for the ODI and T20I series against India, starting on 18 November. Finn Allen, who had a decent T20 World Cup 2022, has been included in both squads. This means that Martin Guptill will once again sit out from New Zealand’s white-ball setup. Trent Boult is the other notable omission from the squads. 

New Zealand coach Gary Stead said it was never easy leaving out the experience of Boult and Guptill but the team had to keep looking ahead. In absence of Boult, Tim Southee, Matt Henry (ODIs only), Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner and Adam Milne will form New Zealand’s pace attack. Meanwhile, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi have retained their places in the T20I setup.

“When Trent opted out of his NZC contract in August, we indicated that priority would be given to those players with either central or domestic contracts, and that’s been the case here,” said coach Gary Stead.

“We’re all aware of Trent’s world-class ability, but at this time - as we build towards more global events, we want to give opportunities and experiences to others. The emergence and success of Finn at the top of the order in white-ball cricket means a guy of the class of Martin Guptill misses out – that’s just the nature of the high-performance sport.

“With the 50-over World Cup less than a year away we’re keen to give Finn every opportunity to keep gaining ODI experience, especially against quality opposition such as India. The message to both those players is that there’s a lot of international cricket ahead and the door is certainly not closed to them.”

The tour begins with a three-game T20 International series across Wellington (Nov 18), Tauranga (Nov 20) and Napier (Nov 22), before moving into the ODI series across Auckland (Nov 25), Hamilton (Nov 27) and Christchurch (Nov 30).

New Zealand squads v India

Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway (wk), Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry (ODI), Tom Latham (ODI) (wk), Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham*, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi (T20), Tim Southee, Blair Tickner (T20)

* Jimmy Neesham has been excused from the squad for the third ODI as he prepares for his wedding, with Henry Nicholls the replacement for the final match in Christchurch.