Nicholls: ODI Series Crucial for World Cup Prep as NZ Faces India

During the pre-match press conference, Nicholls said that this type of ODI series is more critical because one-day cricket is not much between the marquee tournaments. "I think there's not as much one-day cricket between major events. I think that makes these series even more important. You know, certainly for us as a group, it's an exciting format."

"A few of us have been playing some of the List A cricket back home, so we have got a bit of the 50-over format under our belt, but it's a format that we enjoy playing, and it's, like you say, when you have those series now, they are more important than ever with a limited amount. So, yeah, we're certainly looking to make the most of these opportunities as a team," Nicholls said.

When asked about the challenge against Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the 34-year-old replied, "Any time you play, you're going to learn from players like that, and that's a challenge that we knew coming into the series."

Nicholls praised his bowling attack for trying to put both Indian batters (Rohit and Virat) under pressure. "But also to see in the first game, and I think the way the guys adapted, certainly from a bowling point of view, bowling to those guys and finding ways to try and put them under pressure. I think we saw a little bit of that towards the end of the match. So, you know, I'm certainly proud of the way the guys in the second innings with the ball managed to get us a chance back into the game, and that's going to be, moving forward as well, the challenge of how do you build pressure on these surfaces against such good players?"

India won the first ODI by four wickets against New Zealand. The Men in Blue took a 1-0 lead in the ongoing three-match series.

Runs from the bats of captain Shubman Gill (56), Virat Kohli (93), Shreyas Iyer (49) and lower-order aplomb from KL Rahul (29) and all-rounder Harshit Rana (29) helped India chase a challenging 301-run target against New Zealand.

With the ball, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj each claimed two wickets earlier in the match to restrict the Kiwis to 300/8 despite a strong 117-run partnership between Henry Nicholls and Devon Conway.

Squads:

India Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Ayush Badoni, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel.

New Zealand Squad: Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay(w), Michael Bracewell(c), Zakary Foulkes, Kristian Clarke, Kyle Jamieson, Adithya Ashok, Jayden Lennox, Nick Kelly, Josh Clarkson, Michael Rae.

- ANI