New Zealand included their country’s tallest cricketer Kyle Jamieson in the squad for the upcoming ODI series against India. Their decision came after pacers Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson, and Matt Henry became unfit for the injuries.

Kyle Jamieson, 6’8’’ tall is yet to make his debut in international cricket for New Zealand and he is yet to get a chance in playing XI in the first ODI against India. The ODI series will begin from February 5 in Hamilton. He recently performed pretty well for New Zealand A against India A with the figures of 4 for 49 and 2 for 69 in the unofficial ODI series.

New Zealand team head coach Gary Stead although said that India are favourites in the ODIs, keeping their recent form in mind. Stead also added that they will most likely keep the same batting line up that they used from the World Cup final last year. In the absence of their key pacers, Tim Southee will lead the pace bowling attack against.

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“We’ve seen from the Twenty20 series (India) are clearly as strong as ever,” Gary Stead said as quoted by Outlook India. “While the bowling line-up has a fresh look, the batting is very settled and we’ll likely have the same top eight batsmen from the World Cup finals. Tim Southee has an important job leading our new-look pace attack, which has a huge opportunity against some of the very best batsmen in the world.”

The upcoming ODI series will be their first series since their sudden defeat in the 2019 World Cup Final. They are currently playing the five-match T20I series where they already lost the series by 0-3.

New Zealand ODI squad for India series:

Kane Williamson (C), Hamish Bennett, Tom Blundell, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi (1st ODI), Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.