Youngsters Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw will be keen to make a mark and impress the national selectors during the two One-Day warm-up games against New Zealand in Mumbai.
Gearing up for some quality spin test, New Zealand will look to get into the groove when they lock horns with the Board President's XI during Tuesday's warm-up game, a pre-cursor to their limited-overs' series against India.
The Kiwis, led by Kane Williamson, had a few practice sessions at the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne stadium in Mumbai, the venue of the two warm-up games, on October 17 and 19.
Their senior players, including Williamson, Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill, will be eager to get some runs under their belts and carry the momentum into the ODIs.
<p">Board President's XI, on the other hand, is a relatively young side captained by Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer, who has been in good form for the India 'A' team.
Youngsters Iyer, Karun Nair, wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant and teen sensation Prithvi Shaw will also be keen to make a mark and impress the national selectors during the two 50-over matches.
Mumbai's Iyer scored 190 runs for India 'A' in the two-match unofficial Test series against New Zealand 'A', which the hosts won 2-0. He then smashed 127 runs in two matches of the five-match One-day series, which India 'A' won 3-0, after one match was tied and one was washed out.
His Mumbai team-mate Prithvi Shaw failed to make most of the opportunity. He managed just 21 runs in the two one-day games despite having a superb run last season in domestic cricket. He recently hit 154 for India Red against India Blue in the Duleep Trophy after some fine knocks for India Under-19 in England.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who has been on the fringes of selection to India's limited-overs' team, will be desperate to put in a good showing and catch the attention of the selectors.
The Indian bowlers will also go in with a similar approach and look to unsettle the Kiwis batters.
New Zealand coach Mike Henson will particularly look at his opening pair of Tom Latham and Guptill to give the team a decent start on a wicket expected to be flat and full of runs.
With the senior pacers not named in Board President's XI squad, the Kiwi batsmen will face the likes of Dhawal Kulkarni and Jaydev Unadkat, who have relatively little experience at the international level.
The visiting batsmen will need to overcome the spin threat which will be posed by in-form Shahbaz Nadeem and rookie leggie Rahul Chahar.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson had said on Sunday that the practice games are important ahead of the three-match ODI series.
"These two (practice) games coming up are important for us in our preparations. We hopefully will hit the ground running in the first one-dayer," he had said.
With wickets in India generally aiding the spinners, left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner will be eager to get as many wickets in the game and be ready for the main battle.
The Black Caps will like to get some inputs from players like Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, George Worker -- all of whom have been in India for some time now with the New Zealand 'A' team.
While for the Board President's XI players it will be a good opportunity to test themselves against an international team, for the Kiwis it will be all about adjusting to the conditions.
Meanwhile, rain in Mumbai for the past 10 days, especially in the evenings, could affect the start of play if the outfield is wet.
Additionally, the track is expected to have more juice due to the downpour.
Teams:
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, George Worker.
Board President's XI: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Shivam Chaudhary, Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Mann, Milind Kumar, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Nadeem, Deepak Chahar, Dhawal
Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Avesh Khan.
