ZCZC
BSP-10
CRICKET-NZL-IND-TOSS
India to bowl in Twenty20 opener against New Zealand
AUCKLAND, Jan 24, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – India won the toss and elected to
bowl first in the opening Twenty20 match against New Zealand in Auckland
Friday to start their five-match series in a World Cup year.
Captain Virat Kohli said the fading light in the first innings was key
to making New Zealand bat at Eden Park with its short boundaries.
“With the light going it’s a bit hard to pick the ball up initially,” he
said.
“We’re going to look to get good strikes with the new ball and get into
the game.”
India are without Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and
Deepak Chahar while New Zealand are without pace bowlers Trent Boult, Lockie
Ferguson and Matt Henry.
Hamish Bennett, once a regular face in the New Zealand one-day
international side has been recalled to the Black Caps for his maiden
Twenty20 and will share the pace duties with Tim Southee.
New Zealand’s morale has taken a knock following their recent 3-0 Test
thrashing by Australia although they can draw confidence from having beaten
India 2-1 in a Twenty20 series a year ago.
They last met in the ODI World Cup semi-finals last year with New
Zealand again coming out on top.
India have rarely enjoyed success against New Zealand in cricket’s
shortest form although they have their tails up after beating Sri Lanka 2-0
early this month followed by a 2-1 win against Australia in ODIs.
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Tim
Seifert, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim
Southee, Blair Tickner, Hamish Bennett.
India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (capt), Shreyas Iyer, Manish
Pandey, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal,
Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Umpires: Chris Brown (NZL), Shaun Haig (NZL)
TV Umpire: Ashley Mehrotra (NZL)
Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)
BSS/AFP/BZC/1330HRS