1 MOHALI. India. Oct 9: New Zealand find them-| selves dwarfed by the might of two .JJ Indian cricketing greats — Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar — as they prepare for the first Test starting here tomorrow, reports AFP.

Kapil. Test cricket's recordholder with 434 wickets and one of the game's leading allrounders. returns to centrestage after five years as the newly-appointed Indian coach. He will team up with captain Tendulkar. who is himself making a comeback of sorts after missing two limited-overs tournaments

earlier in the season because of a back ailment.

The duo. who played together for five years before Kapil quit in 1994. are expected to share the spotlight as India strive to maintain their unbeaten run In a home Test series since 1987. Kapil stressed it will not be an easy outipg against the Kiwis.

who may have won just two of their 21 Test matches against India, but are buoyant after their maiden series win in England earlier in the summer.

"New Zealand played very well in England and will be gunning for us. They are a very competitive side. "Kapil's first job will be to get his team out of the one-day mode. The Indians have played just five Tests in 1999 as compared to 38 one-dayers. They go into the series after taking part in four limited-overs tournaments during a grueling six-week tour of Sri Lanka. Singapore. Canada and Kenya. Tendulkar's return will bolster the middle-order which will be without former captain Mohammad Azharuddin for the first time in a home series since 1990.

Azharuddin. who is two matches away from achieving the rare distinction of 100 Test appearances, was dumped by the selectors despite recovering from a shoulder operation he underwent after the world Cup.

Azharuddin's place in the side will be contested by Ajay Jadeja and newcomer Vijay Bharadwaj, who made an astounding one-day debut a fortnight ago in Nairobi where he was adjudged the man of the series. India will decide tomorrow morning whether to play three seamers or three spinners on the best Test wicket In the country. which sports a thin layer of grass.

New Zealand have left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori and off-spinner Paul Wiseman to take advantage of a turning wicket, besides a posse of seamers to exploit any early seam movement. The tourists gained useful batting practice In the three-day game against the Board President's team earlier in the week, with Craig McMillan cracking an unbeaten century

and good scores from Matthew Horne and Adam Parore.

TEAMS

NEW ZEALAND (from): Stephen Fleming (capt). Dion Nash (vice capt), Nathan Astle. Matthew Bell. Chris Cairns, Chris Drum. Chris Harris, Matt Horne. Craig McMillan. Shayne O'Conner. Adam Parore (wicket-keeper), Andrew Penn. Craig Spearman. Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman.

INDIA (from): Sachin Tendulkar (capt). Sadagopan Ramesh. Devang Gandhi. Rahul Dravid. Sourav Ganguly. Ajay Jadeja, Mannava Prasad (wicket-keeper), Sunil Joshi.

Anil Kumble. Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad. Debashish Mohanty and Vijay Bharadwaj.

Umpires: Srinivas Ven-katraghavan (India) and Peter Manual (Sri Lanka).

Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).