Raipur, Jan 23 (.) India chose to bowl after winning the toss against New Zealand here on Friday as both teams made multiple changes to their playing XIs, citing conditions and workload management in the second T20I.
“There is already a little bit of dew out there. We haven’t chased in recent times, so we want to chase,” Suryakumar said at the toss. He added that the pitch looked good and was the same surface used during the ODI series. “We play every game trying to improve in all aspects. We are always learning and want to do the same things again in bowling, fielding and batting.”
India made two changes to their playing XI. Axar Patel missed out after being hit in the previous game, while Jasprit Bumrah was rested. Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav came into the side.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said he too would have preferred to bowl first, citing wet conditions. “The ground’s already wet. I don’t think it’s going to get any better for us,” Santner said.
Reflecting on the previous match, he admitted his side needed clearer bowling plans against a strong Indian batting lineup. “We’ve got to be a little bit clearer with our plans and try to squeeze them a little bit more.”
New Zealand made three changes to their XI, bringing in Tim Seifert for Robinson, Zakary Foulkes for Kristiam Clark, and Matt Henry in place of Kyle Jamieson.
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Devon Conway, Tim Seifert (w), Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner (c), Zakary Foulkes, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy
India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson (w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
. . PRS