NZC announces schedule tweaks for India, New Zealand ODIs

LOI series as part of the preparation for the Cricket World Cup 2022 that’s scheduled to start from March 4. New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has announced a few changes to the fixtures of the ODI matches of the series on Friday (February 4).

Earlier last week, all the matches have been relocated to John Davies Oval in Queenstown owing to the restrictions that are in place in the country as part of the COVID-19 preventive measures.

While the venue will remain the same and the one-off T20I will go ahead on the scheduled date on February 9, the ODI leg of tour has been tweaked with first match now to be played on February 12 instead of the originally scheduled date February 11. Second and third games will also see a change in fixture and will now be staged on February 15 and 18 respectively instead of the original dates February 14 and 16. Last two matches will be played as per the earlier fixtures with matches to be held on February 22 and 24.

The T20I will start at 1 PM local time and the ODI matches will be played as day fixtures with a start time of 11 AM.

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During their last tour in 2019, India won the ODI series 2-1 and lost the T20I equivalent by 3-0. Both teams will be looking to gain some invaluable game time ahead of the coveted global event. While the visitors will be looking to go one better from their runners-up finish in the 2017 edition, New Zealand will look to repeat their heroics of the home World Cup in 2000.

India squad for one-off T20I: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, S. Meghana, Simran Dil Bahadur.

India squad for ODIs: Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, S. Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur

New Zealand squad: Sophie Devine (c), Amy Satterthwaite, Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Fran Jonas, Jess Kerr, Amelia Kerr, Frances Mackay, Rosemary Mair, Katey Martin, Hannah Rowe, Lea Tahuhu

Fixtures:

9 Feb: 1st T20I

12 Feb: 1st ODI

15 Feb: 2nd ODI

18 Feb: 3rd ODI

22 Feb: 4th ODI

24 Feb: 5th ODI

* All matches to be played at John Davies Oval, Queenstown

** T20I to start at 1 PM local time (5:30 AM IST), ODIs at 11 AM local time (3:30 AM IST)