Trust Mahendra Singh Dhoni to hit the bullseye with his hunches again.
Hardik Pandya is primarily an all-rounder. He provides a seam bowling option and comes in late to biff the ball. He's an useful player to have in any squad
But trust Dhoni to not bother with all that. And so despite having full-time pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the squad, he decided to have Pandya share the brand new white ball with Umesh Yadav.
And what a move it turned out to be. Yadav and Pandya's openings spells were exemplary. They utilised the little seam movement present in the Dharamsala surface and made themselves unplayable. The ball whizzed around, beat the bat and showed true bounce. New Zealand's batsman still seemed shell-shocked from their Test hammering and looked all at sea.
Martin Guptill edged behind, captain Kane Williamson slashed to third man and Ross Taylor got a beauty that swung away right at the last moment. Then Corey Anderson and Luke Ronchi, seemingly oblivious to the danger their team were in, chipped in the air and were caught out. And just like that, Yadav and Pandya had accounted for half of New Zealand's side as they slumped to 48/5.
The lower-order did manage to recover from that somewhat as New Zealand were bowled out for 190 in 43.5 overs, thanks largely due to Tom Latham's unbeaten 79 and Tim Southee's fluent 55. Yadav finished with figures of 2/31 and Pandya with 3/31. It is a performance that will leave Dhoni and India's selectors very happy. It may just be one match, but if Pandya and Yadav can start off matches like this, India have got a dangerous new pace-bowling opening combination.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 190 all out (Tom Latham 79 not out, Tim Southee 55; Hardik Pandya 3/31, Umesh Yadav 2/31) v India
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