IND v NZL 1st Test Preview at Ahmedabad - India vs New Zealand Squad for First Test

First test match of the 3 match test series between host India and New Zealand will be played between 4th - 8th November, 2010 at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad and timing will be 4:00 GMT, 9:30 IST.

India is in great form defeated Australia by 2-0 last month and maintaning their no. 1 ranking from almost a year. VVS Laxman will return after his heroic match winning inning at Mohali along with other injured players Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma. Dravid is struggling and he is dew for a big inning to retain his place in the team as younngsters are waiting to grab a place and the same case for Gambhi as he avaeraged only 27 this year in 6 matches. Chiteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina will fight for a place in playing 11. Ishant will return in place of Sreeshant and open the bowling with Zaheer while Harbhajan and Ojha will look the spin department.

New Zealand need to boost after their worst performance as they lost all the matches against minnows Bangladesh and need very hard effort from the entire team specially by McCullum, Ryder, Ross Taylor and captain Daniel Vettori. Gareth Hopkins will do the keeping for them..

Indian playing 11 for 1st Test at Ahmedabad:

Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni (C/WK), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth, Pragyan Ojha.

New Zealand playing 11 for 1st Test at Ahmedabad:

Jesse Ryder, BJ Watling, Tim McIntosh, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori (C), Gareth Hopkins (wk,) Hamish Bennett, Tim Southee, Chris Martin.