India vs New Zealand: Shreyas Iyer back in side, Venkatesh debuts

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on Wednesday won the toss and elected to field versus New Zealand at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. 

Shreyas Iyer, who came back after an injury during the UAE-leg of IPL 2021 and was part of the reserves for the T20 World Cup, was called in the playing 11. One more major addition to the team was Venkatesh Iyer. The Kolkata Knight Riders batsman enjoyed a brilliant IPL 2021, scoring 370 runs in 10 games. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel were other additions to the side. 

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“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 two 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.”

“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,” Rohit Sharma said at the toss. 

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The Kiwis made four changes to the team that played the T20 World Cup final. Mark Chapman, Todd Astle and Lockie Feruson were called in. 

“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 crikcklet and the team is looking forward to it. Another chance to give chances – four changes for us – Neesham, KW, Sodhi and Milne miss out; Mark Chapman, Todd Astle and Lockie Feruson are in,” New Zealand skipper Tim Southee said. 

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India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj

New Zealand (Playing XI): Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee(c), Todd Astle, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult