In the second and final Test of the series, India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in Mumbai. On winning the toss, on his return, Kohli had a big smile on his face as the audience at the Wankhede cheered.
“We’re batting first. Looks like a hard wicket and not a lot of grass. With the sun out, it should be the best time to bat. Rahane had a hammie niggle on Day 5, Jadeja has a swollen right forearm, and Ishant has an injury too. We just have to do the basics right like in Kanpur. NZ must be given credit for batting out the overs on Day 5. We can be in positions to capitalize at home if we play well,” the Indian captain said after winning the toss.
New Zealand captain Tom Latham on losing the toss, said: “We would’ve had a bat too. It’s been under covers for a few days, and so it might do a bit early. Unfortunate for Kane, his elbow is acting up again, but good chance for Mitchell. It might swing with the humidity here, and we will get assistance and given the pitch it will spin too. We did well after losing the toss in Kanpur and hopefully we can make use of the conditions here and pick up some early wickets.”
Playing XI (from):
India: Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.
New Zealand: Tom Latham(c), Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell(w), Rachin Ravindra, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Southee, William Somerville, Ajaz Patel.
Injuries
From India: Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja.
From New Zealand: Kane Williamson.
Pitch report
“There’s a bit of moisture usually, but this might hold because it’s been under the covers. This will certainly spin, because I can see cracks and these will open up with the sun out. Because of the moisture on Day 1, there will be seam, so if you bat first you have to bat well, but you don’t want to bat last. This might be a good toss to lose,” said Ajit Agarkar and Deep Dasgupta.
