India's pace spearhead Zaheer Khan will miss tomorrow's World Cup warm-up tie against New Zealand here at Chepauk, it is learnt.

The left-armer missed the fourth and final day of the preparatory camp in Bangalore on Saturday, and subsequently missed the warm-up tie against Australia.

However, Zaheer will lead India's attack in the opening fixture at Dhaka. "He's fully fit but the team management thought it would be ideal to keep him fresh for the more important World Cup games, rather than playing him in warm-ups," a source close to the team said.

Ashish Nehra, S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel are the other seam bowlers in India's 15-man World Cup squad.