India women's ODI series against New Zealand to start from Feb 12 in revised schedule

Auckland, Feb 4:  India women's team ODI series against New Zealand will now begin on February 12, said New Zealand Cricket (NZC) on Friday. As per the now revised schedule, the first of the five ODIs will begin from February 12, a day later than the original date.

"NZC has made changes to the dates of the KFC India Tour of NZ between the WHITE FERNS and India Women, to be played exclusively at John Davies Oval in Queenstown. The date of the first KFC T20I remains the same but there has been some adjustments made to the subsequent five match KFC ODI series," read a statement from NZC.

The change in date of first ODI also means that there is change in second and third ODI dates. The second ODI, originally scheduled for February 14, will now happen on February 15, while the third ODI will be played on February 18 instead of February 16. The dates of final two ODI matches for February 22 and 24 have been retained.

Originally, the series was to be played at three venues: McLean Park in Napier hosting the one-off T20I at and first ODI. It was to be followed by Saxton Oval in Nelson hosting the second and third ODIs and the last two ODIs to be played at John Davies Oval in Queenstown. But NZC moved the whole series to Queenstown last month in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19.

The Indian team, led by Mithali Raj, had left for New Zealand from Mumbai on January 24 and are currently in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) in Christchurch. After the series ends, India and New Zealand will move towards the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup scheduled to run from March 4 to April 3.