India's star batsman Shikhar Dhawan admits he has watched Māori greetings on YouTube, but his experience receiving the powhiri at Tauranga's Bay Oval was "amazing".
Dhawan and his team got a taste of New Zealand culture before their training run today.
"I loved it, I would say we all loved it. I have watched it on YouTube earlier and when I watched it for real it was an amazing feeling," said Dhawan.
"The energy they created was amazing. The whole ceremony was really good. It was good to see the culture and embrace it.
"How we shook hands and touched our heads to each other, I'm sure that passes energy and it was amazing," Dhawan said.
India cruised to an eight wicket victory in their opening ODI match against the Black Caps in Napier on Wednesday.
Dhawan steered his team to victory with an unbeaten 75 runs with the bat, while also bringing up a personal milestone of 5000 ODI runs.
"It means that I have been preforming well, [I am] very grateful that I achieved that milestone and it's part of the journey and I am thankful for it and I just move on.
"I look forward to scoring more runs for my team and do well consistently."
One noticeable omission from India's training today was captain Virat Kohli.
India take on the Black Caps tomorrow in their second ODI match at Bay Oval in Tauranga.
SHARE ME