Dan King-Turner rates New Zealand's chances of winning the Davis Cup tie against India as 50-50.

Play gets underway later today with King-Turner taking on Yuki Bhambri, which will be followed by Rubin Statham playing Vishnu Vardhan.

New Zealand's prospects of winning this Asia/Oceania group one playoff tie were given a boost by Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Somdev Devvarman being either banned or refusing to play in this tie, giving New Zealand their best chance of winning in India for the first time since 1975.

But in order to do this, New Zealand must win at least one of today's singles rubbers.

When asked to rates New Zealand's prospects of coming out on top over the five matches, King Turner said it could go either way.

"I'd say it is 50-50," King Turner said.

"If they had their top doubles guys and No 1 singles player then obviously it would be a lot tougher, but this is a really good opportunity to take it to them this weekend.

"It is going to be an interesting tie and everyone in the team is looking forward to it."

New Zealand's non playing captain, Marcel Vos, says he went with form to pick King Turner and Statham in the singles and name Artem Sitak and Michael Venus for Saturday's doubles rubber.

"It is based on how they've played this year," he said.

"These are the two guys who'll bring in a bit more experience and they deserve to get a go.

"The courts will suit them both well, so those guys deserve to go out there first.

"Obviously playing India in India is a big challenge, it was 37 years ago the last time New Zealand was able to win here.

"But while it is a big challenge, they are missing a couple of players and have quite a young time, while we have experience and on paper all of the five match ups are pretty even, so I think it's going to come down to who is managing the conditions best and if we're able to play our best tennis."
 
Schedule (players can be changed up to an hour before a match is scheduled to start).
Friday 14 September 2012
Day One 4.30pm (NZ start time)
Dan King-Turner v Yuki Bhambri
Followed by
Rubin Statham v Vishnu Vardhan
 
Saturday 15 September 2012
Day Two 6.30pm(NZ start time)
Doubles - Artem Sitak/Michael Venus v Vishnu Varham and Sanam Singh
 
Sunday 16 September 2012.
Day Three reverse singles 4.30pm (NZ start time)
Rubin Statham v Yuki Bhambri
Followed by
Dan King-Turner v Vishnu Vardhan

- © Fairfax NZ News