3 Indian batters who have excelled on NZ soil (ODIs)
What's the story
Team India's next ODI assignment is on New Zealand soil. The five-match series, which gets underway on November 4 in Auckland, holds great significance with the ODI World Cup being less than 12 months away. Batters will be challenged as the tracks in New Zealand are highly known to favor swing bowlers. On this note, we look at three Indian batters who have excelled on NZ pitches (ODIs).
#1
MS Dhoni
Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni was remarkable in the ODIs played in New Zealand.
Across 12 innings in the nation, the legendary batter scored 590 runs with the help of six fifties, as per Cricinfo.
His average of 84.28 is the second-best for any batter with at least 500 runs in this country.
Dhoni also has a healthy strike rate in this regard (98.82).
#2
Virender Sehwag
Such was Virender Sehwag's brilliance in New Zealand that he is just one of the two batters to score 500-plus runs in the nation with a 50-plus average and a 100-plus strike rate.
The other being South Africa's AB de Villiers.
Meanwhile, Sehwag's 12 ODI outings in NZ resulted in 598 runs at 54.36. His strike rate reads 103.1.
The tally includes three tons and a couple of half-centuries.
#3
Virat Kohli
Batting talisman Virat Kohli is the only other batter to average over 40 in NZ (minimum 500 ODI runs).
Across 13 innings of as many games, Kohli has scored 596 runs in the nation at an average of 49.66 (SR: 91.41).
While the star batter has recorded five scores of 50-plus in NZ, only one of them has been converted into a ton.