India chose to bat v New Zealand
India continued to put their batting in the spotlight by choosing to do the difficult thing after winning the toss. It doesn’t all have to do with the 92 all out in the previous game, but about putting the batsmen in a situation where they have to work out on the fly what the par score is and ensure they get there at least. Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma said at the toss the little bit of moisture on the surface was just added challenge.
With MS Dhoni fit and available, India retained Shubhman Gill and left out Dinesh Karthik; so far it is Karthik who has looked like he is going to the World Cup. After a match’s rest, Mohammed Shami was back, but it was now time for Kuldeep to be rested, whop made way for another medium-pacer, or more depth in batting, Vijay Shankar.
New Zealand made a forced change. An injury to Martin Guptill meant Colin Munro got another go after a dismal run at the top of order had him dropped for Hamilton ODI. That they didn’t bring Tim Southee back could suggest they weren’t expecting any swing in wellington.
India 1 Rohit Sharma (capt.), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shubman Gill, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Vijay Shankar, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Shami
New Zealand 1 Henry Nicholls, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Kane Willamson (capt.), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 James Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Todd Astle 10 Matt Henry, 11 Trent Boult