Sourav Ganguly advises Virat Kohli and co. to treat Kiwi spinners cautiously

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly warned the Indian team not to take the likes of Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner lightly, prior to the start of the 3-match ODI series starting on Sunday, 22nd October at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

Indians have been on a roll in the ODI format after winning seven consecutive bilateral series on a trot. The last time the Kiwis toured India was back in October 2016 where they lost the Test series by 3-nil and also lost a riveting 5-match ODI series by 3-2.

In the T20 World Cup of 2016, India faced New Zealand in the opening match of the tournament. The trio of Mitchell Santner, Nathan McCullum and Ish Sodhi exploited the conditions at Nagpur well and India was bundled out for 79 while chasing 126.

This time around, the Black Caps suffered a huge blow with the injury to Todd Astle. As a result, Ish Sodhi was recalled into the side. The only other spinning option in the squad is part-timer George Worker.

India currently number 1 ranked side in the world

“India are strong favourites to win the upcoming series. They played well against Australia. However, New Zealand has spinners, who can control the game a bit in the middle overs. I don’t know how much, but they will,” commented Sourav Ganguly while speaking to Sports Tak.

Due to lack of match practice during the off-season, some of the senior members of the team featured in the New Zealand ‘A’ tour to India. Dada believes the senior Indian team would be a difficult proposition for the Indian team.

“Having said that, India A boys gave a dress rehearsal to the New Zealand A team, which had quite a few senior members. I believe that our big boys will make a little more difficult for New Zealand,” concluded the President of the Cricket Association of Bengal.