India, Jan. 10 -- India's ODI calendar moves from South Africa to New Zealand, with a three-match series starting in Vadodara on January 11, before shifting to Rajkot and Indore. The opener is at the BCA Stadium, Kotambi, and the tour rolls into a five-match T20I leg later in the month.

With only three ODIs, the maths gets brutal: there is no long series to smooth out a slow start, and every substantial innings can flip a milestone from distant to immediate.

Kohli begins the series with 1,657 ODI runs against New Zealand, second only to Sachin Tendulkar's 1,750 in the India-New Zealand head-to-head. That leaves Kohli 94 runs away from becoming the highest run-scorer in this rivalry in ODI cricket.

The bigger all-format chase is even cl...