Indian team arrives in Ahmedabad for Test against NZ

Ahmedabad:

The Indian team arrived here on Monday for their first match of the three-Test series against visitors New Zealand, starting November 4 at the Sardar Patel stadium, Motera.

The players including Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, coach Gary Kirsten, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, spinner Pragyan Ojha and others arrived at the Ahmedabad airport on Monday morning.

The Indian team is likely to practice at the stadium later in the afternoon, officials of the Gujarat Cricket Association said.

For Tendulkar this venue has always been a happy hunting ground. He had scored his career's first double century at Motera stadium against New Zealand in 1999.

He also celebrated his 20 years in Test cricket at the same stadium by scoring a century against Sri Lanka in November 2009.

The batting maestro, who is just one ton short of scoring his 50th Test century, would be looking forward to setting up one more record during the Test match here.

Tendulkar has 49 Test and 58 half centuries, and has the highest number of runs 14,240, in the longer format of the game.