Tri-series: India, NZ missing key players

Both India and New Zealand will want to fill in the blanks left by the absence of key players as they get ready to lock horns in the opening game of the tri-series that gets underway in Dambulla on Tuesday.

While the Indians will be without the services of Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, the Kiwis will have to come to terms with the loss of captain Daniel Vettori, wicketkeeper batsman Brendon Mc Cullum and opener Jesse Ryder. The retirement of speedster Shane Bond from international cricket will also leave a gaping hole in the New Zealand pace attack.

While Vettori and McCullum are awaiting the arrival of their respective newborns, Ryder still will have to sit out because of an elbow injury which he followed up with another drunken episode.

Team India are fielding fresh blood for this tournament and will be hoping that unlike the Zimbabwe tour earlier this year, the senior players are not missed this time around.

Abhimanyu Mithun who impressed with both bat and ball in the recently concluded Test series will be hoping to make the transition in the shorter form of the game as well. Chennai Kings off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and hard-hitting batsman Saurabh Tiwary of the Mumbai Indians will want to carry on their good work from the IPL 2010 season and perform creditably in the big arena.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and vice captain Virender Sehwag will have to lead by example and take the responsibility of shepharding the troops. Yuvraj Singh will be looking to prove a point or two and Ishant Sharma will be hoping to make a memorable comeback after being in the wilderness for quite some time now.

While all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will look for a change of fortune, middle order batsman Rohit Sharma will have to come up with the right attitude.

The New Zealanders, who have always relied on collective team effort rather than individual brilliance, can be expected to fight to the finish as always. All-rounders Jacob Oram and Scott Styris, fast medium bowler Kyle Mills and Ross Taylor, who will be captaining the side, will be the players to watch out for.

There is very little to choose between the two teams when it comes to head to head battles in Sri Lanka. Both have won two matches each, the last one going in favour of the Indians at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo about a year ago just before the 2009 Champions Trophy.

Overall in the 50-over format, the Indians hold a slight edge as they have won 40 while the Kiwis have come up trumps on 36 occassions.

However, India have won the four of their last six encounters last year with one match ending without a result. Having said that past records count for very little and both India and New Zealand will want to get off to a winning start when they clash yet again in another one-day international.