With the ODI World Cup in the fray, veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are back in the mix. But skipper Shubman Gill will be wary of his limited resources and will look to start with a win and take an early lead in the series, with the squad set to shuffle for the final two games.
New Zealand, too, found themselves dealing with a string of injury blows ahead of the series opener. While Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra continue to recover from their respective injuries, regular opener Devon Conway was ruled out the day before the game after colliding with Matt Henry during training.
Despite these setbacks, the hosts have a well-rounded unit, with Glenn Phillips coming off a record-breaking T20I series. The visitors, meanwhile, will be without two key starters, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, while Prasidh Krishna has also been ruled out with an injury. Hence, both teams have considered their respective playing XIs ahead of the first game.
Winning the toss, Indian captain Shubman Gill mentioned that the side was aware of the overcast conditions, and were going in with four fast bowlers and two all-rounders in Naman Dhir and Axar Patel.
“We’ll bowl first, bit of overcast weather, and in case there’s a reduction of overs, it’s good to chase. The conditions here are going to be similar to SA (where the WC is happening) compared to some other places. We are going with Anshul, Auqib, Gurnoor, Arshdeep as the bowlers with Naman and Axar as the allrounders,” Gill said.
Meanwhile, Blackcaps skipper Mitchell Santner said, “We’ve got to go again on another good pitch. With the schedules, there’s been a bit more rotation. Conway is doing well. He is going to rest up and obviously not going to play today. So Seifert gets a chance and like India, we also have four pacers.
Playing XIs:
India: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh
New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner (c), Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Blair Tickner
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