It will be nice to seal the ODI series in Kanpur: Tim Southee

Tim Southee has revealed that the mood in the team was upbeat ahead of the pressure game. (Source: PTI)

Ahead of the third ODI between India and New Zealand at Kanpur, Kiwi pacer Tim Southee has revealed that the mood in the team was upbeat ahead of the pressure game.

“There was an air of excitement around the guys today at training. Obviously we felt freshened up after the day off yesterday. The series is on the line tomorrow. That’s what we play for and like I said, good sides have come here and walked away empty handed. “It’ll be nice to I guess to seal the series here. But India are a tough team in their own conditions as they have shown that over a while,” said the senior Kiwi pacer.

India had their nets at the centre square while New Zealand had them placed on the boundary wickets. Compared to the hosts, the visitors underwent a much longer session in the morning that went beyond three hours. Both teams hit the nets for the first time since arriving on Thursday.

However, captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya were among the five Indian team members who skipped the optional practice session ahead of the series decider against New Zealand here tomorrow.

India would aim to play with the same grit and gumption they displayed in the second match in Pune when they square off against New Zealand in the ODI series-decider here tomorrow.

“We look forward to challenges. We spoke about bouncing back, and we have bounced back here (in Pune). We would look to play a similar sort of game in Kanpur as well,” said Kohli after the six-wicket win over the Kiwis in the second ODI.

Squads:

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur.

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, George Worker and Ish Sodhi.