High-flying Team India will be looking to continue their impressive run when they take on hosts New Zealand in the first of the three-match series on Wednesday (February 6). India will be brimming with confidence after thoroughly outplaying the Kiwis in the recently-concluded five-match series. Barring the fourth ODI, where they lost by eight wickets, the tourists completely dominated the proceedings in the series to win it 4-1.
The focus now shifts to T20Is. Going by the current form, the Men in Blue are the favourites to win the forthcoming series too. However, the odds are firmly stacked against them. India have never found it easy playing a T20I against New Zealand. They had not won a T20I match against New Zealand until Virat Kohli led the team to a 2-1 series win over a visiting Black Caps side in the 2017-18 season. In eight matches between the two sides, the Asian team has won only two with a win percentage of 25.
What makes India’s task even tougher is the absence of their talismanic skipper Virat Kohli. The regular skipper has been rested after the third ODI with Rohit Sharma taking the role. Rohit will have a chance to end India’s wait for a T20i win on the New Zealand soil. So far, India have played just two T20Is in New Zealand and ended up on the losing side in both the occasions during the tour of 2008-09.
As India gear up to end their duck in New Zealand, they will have to come up with a good winning combination for the series-opener in Wellington. So ahead of the first T20I we take a look at India’s predicted eleven:
1. Rohit Sharma:
2. Shikhar Dhawan:
3. Shubman Gill:
4. Rishabh Pant:
5. MS Dhoni:
6. Kedar Jadhav:
7. Hardik Pandya:
8. Bhuvneshwar Kumar:
9. Kuldeep Yadav:
10. Yuzvendra Chahal:
11. Khaleel Ahmed:
