Ahmedabad, November 04: India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first in the first Test against New Zealand being played here at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera.
Fresh from their 2-0 triumph over Australia, hosts India go into the three-Test rubber against New Zealand with the focus on Sachin Tendulkar who just needs one more century to record an amazing feat of 50 Test tons.
The hosts, the world’s number one ranked team, are on a phenomenal run in Test cricket, especially at home, and have lost only to South Africa (twice) since the beginning of 2008 on home soil.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt., wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Amit Mishra and S Sreesanth.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Kane Williamson, Chris Martin, Tim Southee, Tim McIntosh, Jeetan Patel, Brent Arnel, Bradley John Watling, Hamish Bennett, Andy McCay.
—-Agencies