Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal made their debut for India in the first ODI at Seddon Park in Hamilton as hosts New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl first. Mayank and Prithvi came out to open the batting for India as Virat Kohli decided to stick with KL Rahul in the middle order. Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw joined an elite list as soon as they walked to bat in the first ODI against New Zealand.
Shaw and Agarwal became only the fourth opening pair for India to have made their debut in the same ODI. The last instance when two debutants opened the batting for India was when KL Rahul and Karun Nair batted against Zimbabwe in 2016.
4th Instances where two debutantes opening the innings for IND in ODIs.
Sunil Gavaskar and Sudhir Naik vs ENG in 1974
Parthasarathy Sharma and Dilip Vengsarkar vs NZ in 1976
KL Rahul and Karun Nair vs ZIM in 2016
P Shaw and M Agarwal vs NZ in 2020
Shaw and Agarwal gave India a brisk start and brought up the fifty inside 8 overs, becoming the first Indian opening pair to put up a fifty-run stand on ODI debut.
But they were dismissed in quick succession soon after. Prithvi Shaw knicked one off Colin de Grandhomme in the last delivery of the 8th over for 20. He was soon followed by Mayank Agarwal, who smashed a short delivery straight to the fielder. Agarwal scored 32 off 31 balls.
Both Agarwal and Shaw have been called-up as replacements. Prithvi Shaw was named in the squad after Shikhar Dhawan was declared unfit and Agarwal came in as Rohit’s cover after the latter injured his calf muscle during the 5th T20I.
The Black Caps are looking to bounce back from a 5-0 whitewash in the Twenty20 series and stand-in captain Tom Latham said his bowlers were keen to attack.
“I think history suggests that chasing is the easier option here and with a short boundary on one side hopefully later on it will be hard to defend,” he said.
Latham is replacing regular skipper Kane Williamson, who will miss at least two of the three ODIs with a shoulder injury.
Tom Blundell has been given his ODI debut in Williamson’s number three slot in the batting line-up.
Captain Virat Kohli said he would have opted to bowl had he won the toss.
“But it’s not a bad thing to bat first either,” he said. “It’s a good track and as a side it’ll be a challenge for us to keep putting those big scores on the board.”
India are second in the ODI rankings, with New Zealand third.
It is New Zealand’s first ODI since the World Cup final in July last year, which ended with scores tied after 50 overs and a super over and England winning by virtue of scoring more boundaries.
The Black Caps beat the heavily favoured Indians in the semi-final and Latham said the struggling home team hoped to repeat the feat in Hamilton.
“When things haven’t been necessarily going the way you want then you have to look back at those good times and hopefully put a good perfoamnce on the board to start this series well,” he said.
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