Allen added to New Zealand's squad for series against India; Guptill, Boult out

Wellington [New Zealand], November 15 : New Zealand Cricket on Tuesday announced the squad for the upcoming series against India, comprising three T20Is and as many ODIs.
The Black Caps will take on India in a total of six white-ball contests (three T20Is and three ODIs) starting on Friday and the Kiwis announced a pair of 13-player squads for the matches on Tuesday.
Kane Williamson will captain both sides with the T20 squad assembling in Wellington on Wednesday, but there is no room for veteran opener Martin Guptill and pacer Trent Boult.
Finn Allen is primed to face India for the first time after being confirmed in both BLACKCAPS squads for the incoming tour, starting in Wellington on Friday.
The 23-year-old Allen has already played 23 T20Is and eight ODIs for the BLACKCAPS, amassing five half-centuries and a hundred.
Allen's retention at the top of the order for both squads means there's no room for Martin Guptill.
Trent Boult is the other notable omission from the squads - with Tim Southee, Matt Henry (ODIs only), Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner and Adam Milne filling the pace bowling ranks.
Milne is in line to play his first ODI since 2017, building on his return to the T20 International arena during the recent Tri-Series and last year's ICC T20 World Cup in the UAE.
New Zealand coach Gary Stead said it was never easy leaving out the experience of Boult and Guptill but the team had to keep looking ahead.
"When Trent opted out of his NZC contract in August, we indicated that priority would be given to those players with either central or domestic contracts, and that's been the case here. We're all aware of Trent's world-class ability, but at this time - as we build towards more global events, we want to give opportunities and experiences to others. The emergence and success of Finn at the top of the order in white-ball cricket means a guy of the class of Martin Guptill misses out - that's just the nature of the high-performance sport," said Stead in an official statement released by NZC.
"With the 50-over World Cup less than a year away we're keen to give Finn every opportunity to keep gaining ODI experience, especially against quality opposition such as India. The message to both those players is that there's a lot of international cricket ahead and the door is certainly not closed to them," he added.
The tour begins with a three-game T20 International series across Wellington (Nov 18), Tauranga (Nov 20) and Napier (Nov 22), before moving into the ODI series across Auckland (Nov 25), Hamilton (Nov 27) and Christchurch (Nov 30).
The one-day series could see Tim Southee become the fifth New Zealander to claim 200 ODI wickets, with the 33-year-old's tally poised at 199.
Tom Latham returns as the ODI wicket-keeper with Devon Conway continuing behind the stumps for the T20 side.
New Zealand T20I squad: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee and Blair Tickner.
New Zealand ODI squad: Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner and Tim Southee.
India T20I squad: Hardik Pandya (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umran Malik.
India ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen and Umran Malik.