Team India skipper Virat Kohli has spoken over the possible inclusion of veteran pacer Ishant Sharma and young-opener Prithvi Shaw in the playing 11 ahead of the much-awaited Test series opener.
Speaking to the press on Wednesday (February 19), Kohli dropped enough hints indicating that both players will be in the team for the match in Wellington.
"He (Ishant) looked pretty normal and pretty similar to what he was bowling before the ankle injury."
"He is hitting good areas again and he has played (Test cricket) in New Zealand couple of times, so his experience will be useful to us. It was really good to see him bowling with pace and in good areas," Kohli said during the pre-match press conference.
India and New Zealand will lock horns again in a two-match Test series, scheduled to start from February 21. The Kiwis made an excellent comeback in the ODIs after losing the T20I series 5-0.
Speaking on the topic of Shaw's national game, Kohli said: "Prithvi is a talented player and he has his own game and we want him to follow his instincts and play the way he does."
"Look, these guys have no baggage and are not desperate to perform in any manner," he added.
Shaw's start to life in the senior squad hasn't been too attractive as the young opener failed to hit big in all the three ODI matches and the Men In Blue ended up losing all three of those games.
However, Virat backed the 20-year-old and urged him to take lessons from Mayank Agarwal's opener against Australia back in 2018-19 and claimed Shaw can also do the same against the Blackcaps.
"A bunch of guys playing with fearlessness, something that can motivate the whole team, gives us start that the team wants and not get intimidated by the opposition in any way," Kohli said.
"Prithvi, I think you can call him relatively inexperienced and Mayank, I wouldn't call him that inexperienced because he has scored a lot of runs last year. So he understands what his game is like in Test cricket."
