Kolkata: India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat against New Zealand in the third and final T20I of the three-match series at iconic Eden Gardens, here Sunday. India made two changes in their side as Ishan Kishan and Yuzvendra Chahal came in place of KL Rahul and R Ashwin for this match.
“We are going to bat first. Pitch looks a little sticky and we want to challenge ourselves as a batting unit. We gotta try various things and this is one of them. We want to put runs on the board and give the new set of bowlers a target to defend. KL and Ashwin are rested. Ishan and Chahal come in,” said Rohit at the toss.
“We are very clear as to what we want to do, that’s why Ishan has to wait for his opportunity, Chahal as well, he has been a champion bowler for us,” he added.
On the other hand, stand-in New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner mentioned that Lockie Ferguson replaced Tim Southee for this last match.
“Yeah (would have bowled). Last few games it has been wet because of the dew. There has been dew throughout. Whatever we do we have to do it well. We have been close, lost a couple of phases especially in the last game during the middle with the bat, we got off to a great start… But that’s just the way,” said Santner at the toss.
“The Indian openers have come out and built partnerships. We are not far away and hopefully we can put up a complete game today. That’s (Southee) the only change,” he added.
Playing XI:
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), James Neesham, Mitchell Santner(c), Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult