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Agarwal gone early

Okay, this is a beauty from Jamieson. There's no disputing that. The ball was slanted in towards middle and leg, but straightened upon hitting the seam to hit the top of off.

But Agarwal hasn't helped his cause. His bat is coming across the line looking to hit towards midwicket. He'll probably rectify his mindset going into the Tests, but still it's not a good look. It caps off a disappointing series for him. His scores:

• 1st ODI - 32 (31)
• 2nd ODI - 3 (5)
• 3rd ODI - 1 (3)

Team Analysis

Williamson has returned to boost the hosts, who also have Mitchell Santner back from illness. Tim Southee, having played through illness himself in the previous ODI, has also made the cut.

India have left out Kedar Jadhav to give Manish Pandey a game. Wonder if that's just a one-off thing or whether they're now looking ahead for the future.

Playing XIs:

New Zealand (Playing XI): Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Kane Williamson(c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham(w), James Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Kyle Jamieson, Hamish Bennett

India (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Lokesh Rahul(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

Williamson returns, New Zealand opt to bowl

Build Up

Nothing to play for? Did I hear that right?

Thirty years. That's how long it's been since India were whitewashed in a bilateral series of three or more matches. It's not something Virat Kohli and Co would want under their belt, so this final ODI - dead rubber on the face of it, has a lot more going on under the surface.

It's not just about the team record though. There's Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal, both new to the ODI arena, would want to be more than just placeholders for when the big boys return. There's Kedar Jadhav, whose spot continues to be under greater and greater scrutiny everytime he doesn't perform. India's wristspinners - Kuldeep in the first ODI, Chahal in the second - haven't set the stage on fire either and their stock is on the decline as well since the World Cup. So yes, the series is gone but there's a lot to play for.

Even New Zealand, they'll be keen to complete the sweep after going down 0-5 in the T20Is. It'll be a remarkable feat for a team that's battling injuries and illness to an extent they had to use one of their support staff as a substitute fielder in Auckland. The hosts also had to pull out Ish Sodhi and Blair Tickner from the 'A' squad in between a four-day game so as to provide cover for this final ODI.

Word is that Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner and Scott Kuggeleijn are all recovering well, although it remains to be seen whether Kane Williamson - who was targetting a return in this ODI - will give his injury some more time. Bharat Sundaresan spotted him favouring the troubled shoulder in the nets as mentioned in this preview.