New Zealand hosts West Indies to play their first test match, starting 3 December till 7th December at University Oval, Dunedin.
The last time New Zealand were involved in their home tour, they narrowly missed out on taking the series against formidable England. This time around, however, the Kiwis will start as the favourites against a West Indies side still trying to sort out the difference between playing in the limited-overs to the Tests.
Right from outset, Kane Williamson has been ruled out of the opening Test. Kane has a thumb injury, suffered in the series in Bangladesh.
It means that Redmond will add to his seven Test caps, the previous of which came against Australia at Adelaide in 2008.
In the opposite camp, Chris Gayle is missing, giving Kirk Edwards a chance to impress at the top along with Kieran Powell, who played a couple of decent innings in India.
As for the weather, it is predicted to be mild and partly cloudy conditions for the bulk of the match, with rain unlikely to cause interruptions until the final day on Saturday.
Squads:
New Zealand: BB McCullum*, Corey J Anderson, TA Boult, DAJ Bracewell, PG Fulton, AJ Redmond, HD Rutherford, IS Sodhi, TG Southee, LRPL Taylor, N Wagner, BJ Watling†, KS Williamson
West Indies: DJG Sammy*, D Ramdin†, TL Best, KC Brathwaite, DM Bravo, S Chanderpaul, SS Cottrell, N Deonarine, KA Edwards, ST Gabriel, SP Narine, V Permaul, KOA Powell, MN Samuels, S Shillingford, CAK Walton†
Umpires NJ Llong and PR Reiffel
Who leads and dominates? Well, Traditionally, teams have struggled with the bat in the first innings on rather green wickets, before the pitch flattens out on the third and fourth days to provide a better batting surface.
So let us watch the first test which is scheduled From 3-7 December 2013 at University Oval, Dunedin at 10:30 local time (21:30 GMT)
If you are one of the fans located at different destination and miss the chance to visit the stadium to watch your favourite team, You can now watch the match live on your laptop or desktop computer, FREE, provided you have an internet connection, from the links given below:
