Wellington: An unassailable lead has opened up the window for experimentation but there will be no letup in India’s intensity when they face a heartbroken New Zealand team in the fourth T20 International here Friday.
Mohammed Shami and Rohit Sharma combined to pull off a thrilling win via a Super Over in the third game for a 3-0 lead and a maiden T20I series win for Team India on New Zealand soil.
While a five-match T20I series is a rarity, India’s early victory means both sides can contemplate various permutations in light of the T20 World Cup later in the year.
From an Indian perspective, need of the hour is to find a balance between experimentation and the winning desire.
So ahead of the encounter, here are some stats and figures:
Last 5 matches
New Zealand: LLLLL
India: WWWWW
Probable XIs
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul (wk), 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Ravindra Jadeja/Washington Sundar, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami/Navdeep Saini, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Daryl Mitchell 6 Tim Seifert (wk), 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn. 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Hamish Bennett
Stats
Indian opener Rohit Sharma, with 99 T20I innings in 107 matches, is second only to Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik who has feature in 105 T20I innings
The Black Caps have won their last six T20I’s at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, a run stretching back to 2014
New Zealand have won eight games at Westpac Stadium, more than at any ground in the world
Broadcast
TV: The Star Network
Streaming: Hotstar
PNN