Vice-captain Rohit Sharma hinted that India will continue their dominant limited-overs run in the upcoming ODI series against New Zealand, starting Sunday, October 22. The Mumbai batsman also sent a warning message to the visitors, saying the "Men in Blue" are in the groove after demolishing Australia 4-1 in the recently-concluded 50-over series.
Ruthless Team India
Virat Kohli's men have dominated all forms of the game in the recent past. They have not lost a single ODI series at home ever since South Africa humbled an MS Dhoni-led side way back in 2015. Since losing the Champions Trophy final to Pakistan earlier this year, the number two-ranked ODI side have been ruthless, demolishing the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Australia on the trot.
India though were tested by Kane Williamson's men, who toured India for a five-match ODI series last year as well. The visitors forced a decider only to merely surrender the series after getting bowled out for 79 in chase of 270 in Visakhapatnam on October 29, 2016.
With nine members of the last year's team retaining their spots, New Zealand will look to better their 2016 performance in the upcoming series. Also, a few others, including leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, Colin Munro and Henry Nicholls, got used to the sub-continent conditions by featuring in the New Zealand A side that played unofficial Tests and one-dayers against India A last month.
However, Rohit says India are confident of adapting quickly to their opposition. He added that their tactics will not change much as they had played almost a similar New Zealand side last year.
"We would like to continue where we left against Australia. Good thing is that there has hardly been any time between the Australia series and New Zealand series so the guys are in their groove. I hope we put up the same performance as we did in the last series against Australia," Rohit said at a pre-match press conference on Friday (October 20).
He added: "The greatest strength of this team is that we treat each series as it comes and every opposition has their own strengths and weaknesses. The challenge would be to adapt to that opposition quickly. New Zealand would have different team dynamics and the strategies would revolve according to that.
"We played these guys at a similar time last year. Their team is more or less the same, so our planning is not going to change much."
Boult threat
Meanwhile, Rohit also spoke of the threat they could face in left-arm seamer Trent Boult. Despite taking only six wickets last year in India, the 28-year-old made a name for himself during his Indian Premier League (IPL) stint with Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Boult will be raring to have a go at the Indian batsmen, who struggled against Australia's left-arm newbie Jason Behrendorff in the recently-concluded T20I series, which ended in 1-1 draw with final game washed out. The 27-year-old ran through India's top-order in the second T20I in Guwahati with four wickets to help his team level the rubber.
"For us as batters, I think it will be a challenge to face a left-arm seamer. Trent Boult being one of their prime left-arm fast bowlers it gives us a challenge. It will be a huge challenge for all batters to come good against him," Rohit said.
