India vs New Zealand 1st T20I: Toss and Playing XI Update: Rohit invites Southee to bat, Venkatesh Iyer debuts : Rashtra News
On a surface where the dew is going to make an impact as the match progresses, the newly-appointed India captain opted to chase against the New Zealand side which coming back from a good run in T20 World Cup 2021 in the UAE. New Zealand finished as the runners-up in the showpiece event after losing to Australia and are going to resume top-flight cricket within 72 hours of that final in Dubai.
Coach Rahul Dravid’s Indian side handed debut cap to all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer – who grabbed the limelight with his performance in the IPL 2021 second phase in the UAE – and even made a few changes in the squad, which is going to be a tad different than the ones they fielded in the T20 World Cup.
Talking about his debut, Iyer said, “Everyone who plays cricket aspires to play for the country, so I feel good that I’ve been presented with this opportunity. Feels good to play under Rahul (Dravid) sir, I’m really excited and looking forward to it. As a cricketer, you got to be flexible, and I’ll look to capitalise on the role I’ve been given. I’m ready to bat at any position, or bowl whenever I’ve been asked to. It’s wonderful to play in front of the (Indian) crowd, it’s great to have them back.”
Cricket returns home after a gap of nearly two hundred days and this is going to be the first T20I at this venue.
After winning the toss, Rohit said, “We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, thought behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practising from a couple of days. It’s been good, has been only 2 days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days at home and back here. But it’ll be good for the team.”
While talking about the playing eleven for the match against New Zealand, Rohit said, “We have Shreyas Iyer back, Venkatesh is debuting, Bhuvi, Siraj and Chahar are back. We’re playing three seamers and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it’s a lot of time ahead, we’ll try our options, some results might not be immediate, but the process will be crucial.”
New Zealand’s stand-in captain Southee also revealed they are making a few changes to the playing eleven than the one they fielded in the final against Australia.
“We’d have bowled as well, keeping dew factor in mind. Pretty disappointed at not winning the World Cup, but this is a great place to play cricket and the team is looking forward to it. Another chance to give chances – 4 changes for us – Neesham, KW, Sodhi and Milne miss out; Mark Chapman, Todd Astle, Rachin Ravindra and Lockie Ferguson are in,” Southee said.
Playing XIs:
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee(c), Todd Astle, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
India: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj.
( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.mykhel.com feed.)
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