Left-handed Dhawan, who had a horrendous tour of England due to serious technical deficiency on seaming tracks, cashed in on the chance against a weaker opposition on a low and slow sub-continental pitch, smashing 127 off 120 balls.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's astute captaincy will be Chennai Super Kings' biggest weapon against a clinical Kolkata Knight Riders, whose troika of top-notch spinners promise to hold the aces in the high-octane Indian Premier League final in Dubai on Friday.
1983 and 2011 champions India begin their campaign on June 5 against South Africa at Southampton.
Needing 16 off the final over, Pollard hit Ngidi for two fours, a six off the fifth and two off the last delivery to seal victory. 16 runs came from the over as Pollard was unbeaten on a memorable 87 off 34 balls.
Images from Saturday's IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, in Dubai.
India captain Ajinkya Rahane has applauded his team for playing as a unit, saying that every member of the side contributed in the 3-0 whitewash against Zimbabwe in the ODI series.
SunRisers Hyderabad has the biggest purse while Kolkata Knight Riders has the slimmest purse.
Dhoni's men will be slight favourites as it will be Bairstow's last game
India win fifth ODI to seal 4-1 series victory in New Zealand
Three-time champion Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals would look to build on their first wins and gain momentum when they clash in the Indian Premier League in Mumbai on Monday.
The Men in Blue have never won a bilateral ODI contest on Australian soil.
Images from the IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, in Dubai, on Sunday.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson, who replaced the injured Ambati Rayudu in the Indian squad for the remainder of the Zimbabwe tour, said he is happy and excited to don the country's colours.
Defending champions Chennai Super Kings would need to lift themselves after a nightmarish start to the season as they target their first win of IPL 2022 when they take on a high-flying Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday.
CSK finished the season in ninth place, having suffered 10 defeats while managing to win only four times
YoYo test under scanner
Ahead of Saturday's event, here's a lowdown of ready references for the auction.
Captain Rohit Sharma led from the front with an unbeaten half-century to help Mumbai Indians down Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets, in the Indian Premier League, in Pune, on Saturday.
Delhi Capitals will aim to solve their opening conundrum quickly and boost their chances of making it to the IPL play-offs when they take on a lacklustre Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday.
Pandya's absence means that India will have to rejig their bowling attack. Jasprit Bumrah has already been rested for this series, as well as the tour of New Zealand, and this allows the think-tank to conduct one final experimentation with their bowling attack.
India's assistant coach Sanjay Bangar termed out-of-form Shikhar Dhawan as a vital cog, saying the team management wants the right-left combination to fire at the top of the order with the World Cup round the corner.
Kedar Jadhav's stroke-filled 91 was the cornerstone of a collective batting performance by India A as they comfortably beat Vijay Hazare Trophy champions Gujarat by six wickets to enter the final of the Deodhar Trophy one day cricket tournament on Wednesday in Kanpur. India A will meet India B in the final Thursday. Batting first, Gujarat managed a decent 272 in 49.2 overs, riding on skipper Parthiv Patel's second List A century. Parthiv scored 119 off 125 balls with 16 boundaries. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra grabbed 3/48 in 9.2 overs, while off-spinner Parvez Rasool had equally impressive figures of 3/47 from nine overs.
Chennai Super Kings prevailed over a weakened Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs to consolidate their position at the top of the order
Delhi's strong batting line up of Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith and Pant himself will look to fire on all cylinders right from the opening game.
The two areas where India's team management and selectors need to do a lot of brainstorming are the No 4 slot and an extra fast bowler.
It will be a test of wits between two new captains in Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya when defending champions Chennai Super Kings clash with debutants Gujarat Titans in the IPL match in Pune on Sunday.
'That is the difficulty at the moment, trying to assess what the conditions are at three different grounds. There was no lack of intent. We had to stabilise after a couple of mistakes. Delhi bowled well in the last five overs, they were really smart.'
A summary of Ranji matches played on Wednesday.
While Robin Uthappa had scored a fifty in one of the games, the likes of Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu have failed to capitalise on their starts.
The former captain's struggling innings of 51 off 96 balls and his failure to rotate the strike in the first ODI has brought to focus the rejigging that captain Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri will have to fret upon.
In other big movements, Punjab Kings have released their last edition's captain Mayank Agarwal, while West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran was released by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The 23 year old plundered bowlers, over after over, getting the fours, sixes and the singles and twos at will.
The Chennai Super Kings captain played another match-turning innings, against Kings XI Punjab, in Chennai on Saturday to inspire his team to a 22-run win.
Images from the Indian Premier League match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings, in Sharjah, on Friday.
Take a look at top picks of all 10 IPL teams
A round-up of Ranji Trophy matches played on Friday.
Malik has been the find of the season as he outsmarted the top batters of the world with his brutal pace.
CSK have better resources but they must utilise them to the hilt. Teams:
A summary of Friday's action in the Ranji Trophy matches across the country.
A 3-0 lead in the five-match series will be a perfect parting gift for Ranchi's favourite son, who, in all likelihood, will be seen wearing the India Blues for the last time at his home ground.
