IND vs NZ: Ro-Ko mania at Eden Park, but there’s a bigger picture

Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir (Image: Debasis Sen)

Around 1 pm local time, India were yet to turn up at Eden Park for their matchday-minus-one training session. A sizable gathering of the Indian diaspora had already assembled outside Gate J. “Can you please arrange a picture of Virat Kohli?” was the collective request.

About a couple of hours later, when the former India captain stopped in front of the gate to oblige the fans, “Kohli, Kohli” chants reverberated in the air. By then, the gathering had swelled into a crowd.

Rohit Sharma, meanwhile, was having a light-hearted conversation with the Indian team support staff after finishing his session. Sukoon is writ large on his face. He is in calmer waters now. Ajit Agarkar is gone, the new selection committee chairman, Pragyan Ojha, is unlikely to rock the boat, and Rohit is no longer on a slippery slope. If he stays fit, he will play the 2027 World Cup.

A five-match ODI series in the context of modern-day cricket, and especially in a rugby country, is an oddity. But that’s what the BCCI and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) have agreed upon, ostensibly enamoured by the Ro-Ko factor. After three matches, the Test stars will leave the scene to prepare for red-ball cricket. The stardust will not diminish. The game’s two biggest stars are here, wowing the fans.

The busy fingers of regeneration in India’s ODI set-up after the 2025 Champions Trophy spared Kohli. There was never any doubt that he would last until the 2027 World Cup. Rohit’s case was different. Yashasvi Jaiswal was seriously snapping at his heels. Rohit had to raise his fitness level and his game. It’s unfortunate that Jaiswal has now been relegated to a one-format cricketer despite scoring two hundreds in his last three ODI innings. But that’s a different story.

Rohit is 39, but the hunger still burns. Winning the ODI World Cup remains unfinished business. In 2011, when India were triumphant, he wasn’t part of the squad. In 2015, India weren’t strong enough to win a World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere. Four years later, in England, Martin Guptill’s throw from deep backward square to run out MS Dhoni broke a billion hearts. In 2023, on home soil, when he was captain, India moved like a freight train before falling to Australia at the final hurdle.

Rohit has 35 hundreds in ODIs. He is yet to score one in New Zealand. His highest score in the 50-over format in this part of the world is 87, and his average is 35.7. A first ODI century in New Zealand would be nice, and he has five matches to do that. But Rohit doesn’t play for milestones. The way he has been playing over the last 12 months — 18 matches, 952 runs, three hundreds and an average of 56 — suggests he is in a good space to contribute handsomely to the team’s cause.

For the team, however, the bigger picture is more important. Over the last 12-odd months, India’s record in ODIs has not been particularly impressive. They lost in Australia last year and at home to a depleted New Zealand side earlier this year. They went down 2-1 to England in the summer and, although India were the superior side in a 2-1 victory over the West Indies at home in September-October, the Caribbeans chased down 351 in the final game.

Without Hardik Pandya, the team continues to struggle to strike the right balance. A fast-bowling unit in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah tends to give up easily under pressure.

Fast bowlers not taking wickets in the middle overs is proving to be India’s bugbear in the 50-over format, a reason why Shubman Gill has been insisting on having tall quicks in the side who are slippery and can hit the deck hard. The skipper explained it in detail.

“What I feel is, you know, when the ball gets old, when there is not much seam or swing movement, then how do you challenge the batter?” Gill said at the pre-match press conference. “You can challenge the batter if there is something in the wicket, if the ball is seaming, then it becomes difficult for the batter to score. Or you can challenge the batter by pace and bounce. So, identifying the kind of bowlers that can make run-scoring difficult for the batters and that can give us the best opportunity to take wickets in the middle overs, and that has been the thinking around it, trying someone like a Gurnoor (Brar) or a Prasidh (Krishna), which gives us a bit more than someone who is bowling at maybe 135 (kph), even the wicket is flat.

“And I have played in the middle overs a lot, and I have seen if those bowlers can hit the right areas of, obviously, hitting the right areas is the key, if those bowlers, tall, fast bowlers can hit the right areas, it’s a lot more difficult to score runs than someone who’s bowling at 135-130 (kph).”

This makes Brar important. He is the fastest in the group, with the ability to extract disconcerting bounce off the surface. Whether to pick Mohammed Siraj or Arshdeep Singh for the first ODI tomorrow could be a tricky call, though. The former has experience, while Arshdeep’s left-arm seam will offer variety. Anshul Kamboj could be the third pacer in the XI, as the team management wants someone at No. 8 who can contribute with the bat as well. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was doing some red-ball training on the eve of the match, is the fourth seam-bowling option.

New Zealand, meanwhile, will miss Devon Conway in the series opener after a freak injury during his team’s training session today. He collided with Matt Henry while taking a catch, and both players were immediately attended to by the medical staff. “Conway was taken to A&E for further examination which confirmed a concussion that has ruled him out of the first ODI against India tomorrow,” said the NZC press release.

The hosts aren’t at full strength in this series, but rule them out at your peril. At the start of the year, a depleted New Zealand side trumped India in their own backyard in a three-match ODI series. A certain Daryl Mitchell had scored 352 runs in that series at an average of 176.00. India need to get Mitchell out early to avenge their home defeat.

A drop-in pitch is unlikely to ask tricky questions of the batters, although there would be a bit more in it for the bowlers compared to the T20I highways. Nights are cold and windy, something the Indians aren’t used to. Gill admitted that it would be a challenge.

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