India have brought back Shikhar Dhawan in place of Stuart Binny while New Zealand handed ODI debut to 22-year-old paceman Matt Henry. Mitchell McClenaghan also came back into the playing XI.
India, who have already lost the series, would be desperate to salvage some lost pride by notching their maiden win on the tour so far.
The Men in Blue have lost much in the past two weeks, in lieu of a 3-0 series loss as also the climb-down from their number one ODI ranking.
The visitors lost the first ODI in Napier by 24 runs, then went down in Hamilton by 15 runs, tied the third ODI in Auckland, but lost the fourth in Hamilton by seven wickets to squander the series.
A consolation win will mean that the series will end at 3-1 rather than 4-0, the latter a very embarrassing score-line if it indeed comes to pass.
Even so, victory will only restore so much respectability for the reigning world champions, considering how awfully wrong things have gone for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team ever since they stepped out of home in early December.
In seven ODIs since, they are yet to win a single match, losing five and tying one (one no-result).
After the fourth ODI loss, Dhoni had stated the need to "rest players and allow them time to think about their game", thus justifying the double-dropping of Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina.
Dhoni also highlighted the team management's decision to "keep playing Ajinkya Rahane in the middle order" and that "Virat Kohli's move up the order was only a one-off thing".
Mohammad Shami has been a work horse for the team on its two tours. He has taken wickets but has also given away too many runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been off-colour while Varun Aaron is seen to be quite raw on his return to international cricket.
Meanwhile, New Zealand will only be too happy to change their line-up. They have successfully completed the job with one match to play, and it is a success that should be celebrated for quite some time in their cricketing ranks.
Yet, 4-0 is their obvious target against one of the top-ranked ODI sides in the world and they will look to play the majority of their best and fit players in this last match to continue to impress.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron.
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (Capt.), Martin Guptill, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Matt Henry.
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