Visakhapatnam, Jan 28 (.) India won the toss and opted to field against New Zealand in the fourth T20I at ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, citing dew and favourable chasing conditions.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav said the surface looked good for batting later in the evening, with humidity and dew expected to aid strokeplay in the second innings. Emphasising continuity, he said the team wanted to repeat the good habits built over the past year, learn from the previous game and continue playing fearless cricket to entertain the crowd.
Suryakumar added that Arshdeep Singh replaced Ishan Kishan, who suffered a niggle in the last match, while Axar Patel was still not fully fit. He said the batting unit needed to take greater responsibility without compromising on intent and expressed confidence in having five strong bowling options.
New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said the wicket appeared good once again but acknowledged that dew could make bowling tougher later. He stressed the need for his side to improve with the ball after learning from the first three matches against a quality Indian team. Santner said New Zealand would look to set a strong total batting first.
Santner confirmed one change to the XI, with Zakary Foulkes coming in for Kyle Jamieson. He added that Lockie Ferguson remained unavailable, while Finn Allen was on his way back to the squad.
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (c), Zakary Foulkes, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy
India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah
. . PRS