The hosts New Zealand and the visitors India are playing the fourth game of the five-match T20I series at Westpac Stadium (Wellington). The hosts won the toss and chose to bowl first.
India have already secured this series by leading it 3-0. They played the first two matches of this series at Eden Park (Auckland) and third game at Seddon Park (Hamilton). While the visitors won the first two games by six and seven wickets respectively, they secured this series after winning the Hamilton T20I in the Super Over.
New Zealand vs India 2020 (Toss Report): 4th T20I, Wellington
Due to the left shoulder injury (AC joint), New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is missing this Wellington T20I. He suffered that injury while diving during the third game of this series. Tim Southee is leading the Kiwi side in this match.
Captain Kane Williamson has been ruled out of tonight’s 4th T20I with a left-shoulder injury (AC joint) sustained while diving in the field in game 3. He will hopefully be available for the final game of the series at Bay Oval. Tim Southee will captain the side in T20I 4. #NZvIND pic.twitter.com/0Igj6RMnzg
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) January 31, 2020
New Zealand made two changes
In the toss of this Wellington T20I, New Zealand captain Tim Southee decided to field first after winning the toss. Southee also confirmed that they made two changes in the squad. Tom Bruce replaced Colin de Grandhomme and Daryl Mitchell came in for injured Kane Williamson.
Southee said, “We are gonna bowl first. Looks a pretty good surface. Hopefully, it sort of skids on later on. Kane’s got a niggle in his shoulder. He dived and fell awkwardly in Seddon Park. I don’t think it’s major. He should be alright in a couple of days. We showed a lot of improvement from the two games at Eden Park. We need to keep improving, keep doing the small things right. It’s just small improvements. Tom Bruce comes in for CdG and Daryl Mitchell comes in for Kane.”
India made three changes
It was the third consecutive toss defeat for the Indian captain Virat Kohli. He confirmed that they made three changes in the playing XI. Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini have been added in the squad as the replacement of Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja.
Kohli said, “We would have probably bowled first as well. This side (square boundary) is pretty short. Looks like a good track as Tim mentioned, should stay good throughout but the only factor you could consider is wind. It’s a matter of coming out and executing our plans. We spoke in the team meeting about how good a game that was. We haven’t had a game like that in a while. Either we’ve had easy victories or quite one-sided losses. For us as a side, it was a massive confidence booster. The team is playing so amazingly well. It’s just an opportunity for the guys who are gonna play this game and the next one to take the momentum forward.
“We have rested Rohit, Shami and Jadeja. Sanju Samson is going to open the innings with KL Rahul. Washington Sundar and Saini are in. Three exciting additions to the squad, quite keen to see how they go.”
New Zealand vs India 2020:
Here are the playing XIs of both the teams:
New Zealand playing XI: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Tom Bruce, Ross Taylor, Tim Seifert (wk), Mitchell Santner, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tim Southee (c), Ish Sodhi, Hamish Bennett, Daryl Mitchell
Indian playing XI: Sanju Samson, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini