Five Positives for Team India from the India vs NZ ODI Series

#1 Amit Mishra stakes claim for regular spot

Amit Mishra – The man with the golden arm

Amit Mishra is another player who has spent most of his career on the fringes of the Indian team. Having made his ODI debut way back in 2003, it is disappointing to see that he’s gone on to play only 36 ODIs since, a very low number for a spinner as talented as him.

Given a chance in this series as the leading spinners were rested, he put on a great display of spin bowling. There was a lot of bite in his leg-spinners, and his googlies were hard to pick for the Kiwi batsmen.

In this series, he picked up two or more wickets in every game but the icing on the cake came in the final ODI at Vizag where he demolished the Kiwi batters with a five-for as they were bowled out for 79 giving India a 190-run victory and the series win. Mishra finished the series with 15 wickets and claimed his first Man-of-the-Series award.

The 33-year old leggie came into the series with the knowledge that he might not get many opportunities in ODIs when the team's regular spinners returned from a rest. But with his amazing displays, he has made sure that the selectors and the team management have a selection headache when the likes of Ashwin and Jadeja return.