Gambhir warns team of complacency; New Zealand pin hopes on McCullum

VADODARA - India are eyeing a series win here Saturday, but captain Gautam Gambhir warned his teammates of complacency ahead of the third One-day International against New Zealand.

India have taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, but Gambhir fears that complacency might affect his team in the third ODI that would played here at the Reliance Stadium.

On the eve of the match here Friday, Gambhir said: “I believe that players need to be wary from becoming complacent. We are going to see it now as three-match series. In ODIs New Zealand are a dangerous side and tomorrow we will see an interesting contest.”

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori hoped that his star batsman Brendon McCullum would be available for the match. The aggressive opener missed the first two ODIs due to a back pain, but batted at the nets Friday.

“Brendan is improving all the time. He is doing some keeping now. We hope he can play tomorrow,” said Vettori.

Gambhir also asked his teammates not to think about the tour of South Africa that starts later this month.

“I am not thinking about South Africa. My focus is on the series at hand and tomorrow’s match. I have been given a responsibility to captain the team and only after completing it I would think about South Africa tour,” Gambhir said. “I will fully utilise the time I will get after reaching there to acclimatise to the conditions,” he added.

Gambhir was also happy with the return of pace spearhead Zaheer Khan in the side.

“Any captain would love to have Zaheer back in the team. Any bowling he does in this series now will be very useful to him before the South Africa series,” said Gambhir.

Vettori, making plain that the team was pinning hopes on McCullum, said: “Balancing the team is always difficult when Brendan offers so much with his keeping and opening the innings.”

“We may even look at him batting down the order depending on his fitness so that his workload is not that high, but in the future we want him to keep and open the batting.”

Vettori said the team wants to win the match and keep the series alive.

“We are really desperate to win this match. We have to improve on a lot of things. They (India) are playing exceptionally well. They are one of the form teams in the world,” he said.