New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat first at the second T20I against India at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow.
New Zealand Captain Mitchell Santner said: “We will bat first. Just going with the trend here and so we opt to bat. It was nice to come back after a tough ODI series. Different guys stepping up at different times. It’s never easy to beat India at home. There were times when we thought we were ahead of the game but they bounced back with the partnership between Surya and Hardik. We will play with the same XI.”
The opening match was sealed by the visitors with a wonderful display of spin bowling. India needs to win this match so that they can null the series and take the final result to the last T20I on February 1.
While New Zealand playing eleven remains unchanged, India roped in leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for quick bowler Umran Malik bringing the Kul-cha combination back into the playing eleven.
Indian Captain Hardik Pandya said : “We also wanted to bat first but it is fine. This is a fresh team, but we have spoken about getting into the challenge and having to do difficult things. It can’t get more difficult than this in a bilateral series, losing the first game and then two games on the line. Looking forward to this game. We all should remember that we started playing this sport to enjoy, so I just want to pass that message to the team. We have made a change – Chahal comes in place of Umran.”
India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya(c), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh.
New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Ish Sodhi, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Blair Tickner.
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