India - New Zealand Series

Mills, Butler back in Kiwi ODIs squad

Fast bowler Ian Buttler’s impressive showing in the just-concluded Twenty20 Internationals has earned him a place in the New Zealand One-Day team after a hiatus of five years for the first three games of the five-match series against India starting March 3.

Apart from Buttler, Kyle Mills, who had strained his Achilles tendon, also made a comeback to the ODI squad after a two-week injury lay-off to augment an already lethal Kiwi pace battery, led by Iain O’Brien, Butler and Tim Southee.

The Black Caps have more seam bowling options in Jesse Ryder and Jacob Oram, who missed the Chappell-Hadlee Series earlier this month because of injury but played the two Twenty20 matches against India. They returned in place of Brendon Diamanti and Peter Fulton.

However, Nathan McCullum and Ewen Thompson failed to make the move up to New Zealand’s ODI team. Offspinner Jeetan Patel was also left out of the squad which has a lone regular spinner in skipper Daniel Vettori.

The ODIs will be be played at Napier (March 3), Wellington (March 6), Christchurch (March 8), Hamilton (March 11) and Auckland (March 14).

The Team: Daniel Vettori (captain), Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Iain O’Brien, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.

Tags: India, new zealand