Two of the top three teams, India and New Zealand, will face-off in a five-match ODI series. With the ICC World Cup months away, what happens during the bilateral series will be read keeping in mind the respective teams' chances in the quadrennial tournament.
And rightly, the protagonists have already provided their bytes. On the eve of the series opener in Napier, we present you 'who says what'.
Kiwi captain Kane Williamson, expressing his admiration Virat Kohli, said that they will be primarily focussed on how to "best combat" his Indian counterpart.
Returning the compliment, the Indian run-machine also lauded the prolific Williamson, calling him one of the best in the world.
Williamson said, "Someone like Virat is certainly a player I admire and enjoy watching and he's pushing the boundaries of the game so that's brilliant," said Williamson on the eve of first ODI of the five-match series.
He said Kohli was a passionate and world-class cricketer.
"He's a respectful guy and I've known him for a very long time but as a player, obviously, word class and our focus is more about that and his cricketing ability and how we can combat him as best as we can," Williamson said.
Williamson felt that the passion with which Kohli approaches his cricket has made him a crowd puller around the world.
"He's always a challenge to come up against and is someone who is most admired in terms of how he goes about his cricket and he's formidable in his run scoring so he's definitely a player of note to try to shut down."
Kohli, too, was not far behind when it came to acknowledging Williamson's achievements.
"Williamson is easily one of the best players in the world. So easy on the eye, great to watch and I personally enjoy his batting and when he is on song he is easily one of the most attractive batsmen to watch.
"He is always going to be a solid player for NZ purely because of what all he has done over the years in all three formats."
Kohli picked Williamson and Ross Taylor as batsmen his team would look to dismiss cheaply.
"He more or less makes the team win when he is scoring runs, so that tells you about his awareness about the game and hence he is leading the side and guiding it in the right direction. So Kane will be a factor but at the same time Rosco (Taylor) and other guys as well.
"You can't take anyone for granted and their batting revolves around Kane and Ross in ODIs especially, the other guys bat around them and we are aware of that and working on our plans," Kohli said.
Kohli, however, stressed on the importance of all-rounder Hardik Pandya in India's ODI side. Pandya has been suspended pending inquiry after his sexist comments on a TV chat show.
"Depends on the all-rounder to be honest. If you see the strongest sides in the world, they have two all-rounders at the least, some sides have three, so that gives you a lot of bowling options," Kohli said.
Pandya's unavailability has put India in a tight spot, especially with the visitors looking to have a third seamer who can also contribute with the bat.
"Only if someone like a Vijay Shankar or a Hardik doesn't play, then (only) three fast bowlers makes sense. Because if an all-rounder can chip in with a few overs of seam up, then you don't necessarily need a guy bowling 140kmph as the third bowler along with the two fast bowlers," Kohli said ahead of the first ODI at McLean Park.
"So whether it's me backing three bowlers or during Asia Cup, every time it happened when Hardik wasn't available. We have had to play three fast bowlers. So every time, the all-rounder is there, you are not thinking about a third fast bowler unless you are playing in conditions which are totally against spin bowling," the skipper said.
While winning the series is important, the Indian captain made it clear that he would like to remain flexible about team combination keeping the World Cup in mind.
"Look winning is always going to be a very important factor but the main thing is not to be desperate at this stage. There needs to be a good atmosphere in the change room, there needs to be calmness and collective effort towards just refining ourselves as a team approaching the World Cup."
Kohli indicated that a few players could be tried here and there, raising hopes of young Shubman Gill getting an opportunity during the series.
"Also to try a few players here and there and see how they react to different situations or different positions in the team. We are open to doing that as well.
"You don't want to be too rigid because you want to be flexible in your mind and in your preparation to be able to competitive during a big tournament like the World Cup," the skipper explained.
"I think we need a good balance of both even if we back a few players to play at some stage, the idea is still to win the games and not just think of it as an experiment," he set priorities right.
Pitch Talk
Williamson believed the pitch at McLean Park could aid batsmen.
"...So it's important the batting group puts together a plan that is good but, at the same time, the bowlers have a massive role in that in trying to nullify the strengths in both oppositions."
New Zealand grounds presents a different challenge for bowlers with the boundaries on the shorter side.
"You have to aware of side boundaries being really short in most of the grounds, so targeting the right areas of the ground becomes very important but I think bowlers require more composure here in terms of which are the shots that batsmen want to play, so you have the best chance of getting them out or restricting boundaries," Kohli observed.
The current batting group is much more experienced compared to the one in 2014, said the skipper.
"Well we have seen a lot of things that happened from the last series (2014) that we played here, like what were patterns and how the guys were trying to get us out last time, we were probably not an experienced a side back then in terms of batting group," he stated.
"The key is not to panic too much in the field, when you see 300 being posted regularly as you have to back yourself as batting group to get those runs or set a big target when batting first, which I believe when we played last time, we didn't have the composure," he reasoned.
(With PTI inputs)
