Online Cricket Updates
At
Cricket Village

Young seam bowler Dhawal Kulkarni after an outstanding performance in the Ranji Trophy season 2008-09 got a maiden call-up in the Test Squad announced for the tour of New Zealand, while L.Balaji is also included in the 16 member squad. L.Balaji is making comeback after almost 2 years.

Apart from D.Kulkarni rest of the players included is same which played against England in the home series last year. Indian selection panel lead by former Indian Captain K.Srikanth announced three different squad for the New Zealand tour, one for twenty20, one for one day international and last one for Test series.

D.Karthik the Indian wicketkeeper batsman named in all three squad as reserved wicketkeeper to provide M.S.Dhoni some assistant and help whenever required on the tour. Injured Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel is included for all three formats of the game. H.Singh missed the tour of Sri Lanka recently while M.Patel has to return back home after first ODI is now fit and included in the team.

Ravindra Jadeja who scored brilliant half-century in his debut match is left out of one day squad; however he is included for twenty20 International. P.Ojha is also left out from test squad announced while he is included in ODI and twenty20 squads.

India will start their tour with two twenty20 International to be played on 25th and 27th of February. Then India will play five one day internationals against the home team on 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th and 14th of March. The two teams will then square off for three-match Test series.

Indian team has tough jobs on their hand since they never won test series on New Zealand soil since 40 Years. Last time also they loss test series by 0-2 and seven match ODI Series by 2-5.

India Test Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Murali Vijay, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra.

India Twenty20 Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha.

India ODI Squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Captain & WK), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha.

Here is New Zealand Squad for the series against India at home

New Zealand Fifth ODI Squad: Daniel Vettori (Captain), Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Peter McGlashan (WK), Kyle Mills, Iain O'Brien, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Ewen Thompson.

New Zealand First Test Squad: Daniel Vettori (Captain), Brent Arnel, Daniel Flynn, James Franklin, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill, Tim McIntosh, Brendon McCullum (WK), Chris Martin, Kyle Mills, Iain O'Brien, Jeetan Patel.