India captain Sourav Ganguly elected to bat on a dry surface at the Harare Sports Club against New Zealand in the final of the Videocon Cup tri-series in Harare on Tuesday.
India opted for Harbhajan Singh as their super sub, and with the flip of coin going their way the gamble may still pay off.
Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra also came back into the side in place Murali Karthik and speedster Rudra Pratap Singh.
For New Zealand, Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori will return to the side after being rested for the previous match against India on Friday.
Chris Cairns will serve as the super sub for New Zealand.
The last time India won a ODI tournament was in July 2002 when India beat England in an epic NatWest Series final chasing a victory target of 326 runs. Since then India have played in nine tournaments, reached in the final seven times, but could not win even one on their own.
Teams:
India: S Ganguly (captain), V Sehwag, M Kaif, R Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, JP Yadav, A Agarkar, I Pathan, V Rao, A Nehra, Harbhajan Singh (super sub)
New Zealand: S Fleming (captain), N Astle, L Vincent, H Marshall, C McMillan, S Styris, J Oram, B McCullum, D Vattori, S Bond, K Mills, Chris Cairns (super sub).
