The hosts New Zealand and the visitors India are playing the last game of the five-match T20I series at Bay Oval (Mount Maunganui). India won the toss and decided to bat first.
India have already secured this T20I series as they are leading this series by the 4-0 margin. They won the first two T20Is by six and seven wickets respectively at Eden Park (Auckland). The next two matches entered to the Super-Over due to tie results (at Hamilton and Wellington), and India won both those Super Overs.
Rohit Sharma is leading the Indian team
Coming back to this T20I at Bay Oval, Rohit Sharma is leading the Indian team in the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli. Rohit won the toss and chose to bat first. India made only one change as Rohit replaced Kohli.
Rohit said after winning the toss, “We’ll bat first; I had to think a little bit. It looks like a good pitch and that’s what we want to challenge our team as well to defend totals. We thought of making a few changes, but the combination we played in the last game was very good and we want to continue with that and give them a longer run. We want to continue the momentum and it is not always that we get a chance to make it 5-0. We want to be up for it.
“The only thing we’ll be worrying about is not being complacent; by no means are New Zealand not a good team and they have been playing really well. We want to be on the money and the last few games were really good for us. Just the one change – I come in for Virat and Sanju will open. I will bat at three.”
New Zealand maintained the same playing XI like Wellington T20I
After losing the toss, New Zealand stand-in captain Tim Southee confirmed that they have made no changes in the playing XI.
Tim Southee said, “We were looking to bowl as well. It looks like a good surface and hopefully we can restrict them to a low total. Kane was a late change, he still felt a bit of discomfort after a few throwdowns and hopefully he’ll be fit for the one-dayers. Winning is ideal, but you don’t want to keep worrying about the outcome. We want to go back to doing what we do well and the results will take care of themselves. We’re playing the same team as Wellington.”
New Zealand vs India 2020:
Here are the playing XIs of both the teams:
New Zealand playing XI: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Tim Seifert (wk), Ross Taylor, Tom Bruce, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tim Southee (c), Ish Sodhi, Hamish Bennett
Indian playing XI: KL Rahul (wk), Sanju Samson, Rohit Sharma (c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah