Team India leaves for New Zealand; to play 2 Tests, 5 ODIs

Mumbai: The Indian squad led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni departed for New Zealand from here on Sunday for a five-match ODI series followed by a best-of-two Test rubber against the hosts.

The limited overs contest will start on January 19 at Napier and conclude on January 31 at Wellington with the other three games to be held at Hamilton (January 22), Auckland (January 25) and Hamilton (January 28). The Test series would be held after that with the opener scheduled from February 6-10 (Auckland) followed by the second and final match at Wellington (February 14-18). The tourists would play a two-day warm-up game on February 2 and 3 at Whangarei ahead of the Tests. Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Zaheer Khan, Murali Vijay and Umesh Yadav did not leave with the others on Sunday and are slated to leave a week later. This is India`s ninth visit to New Zealand for a bilateral contest and their first since 2008-09 that they won 1-0. The ODI team: MS Dhoni (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Ishwar Pandey, Stuart Binny and Varun Aaron. The Test team: MS Dhoni (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishwar Pandey.