India vs New Zealand 2021-22: Rohit Sharma opts to bat in 3rd T20I, Avesh Khan's debut delayed
India and New Zealand clash in the third and final T20I in Kolkata on Sunday. Rohit Sharma has won the toss and opted to bat, while Avesh Khan is not debuting tonight.
FollowOn Sunday, the third and final and Twenty20 International (T20I) between India and New Zealand is being played at the iconic Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata. At the toss, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won it for the third time in the series. However, he decided to bat first against the preferred bowling decision.
Reasoning his decision, Rohit reckoned that the pitch is sticky, while he was eager to test the side as a batting unit. Being a dead rubber, Rohit reasoned that it allows the side to try out newer things, and besides posting runs on the board, it would be a decent test for the young bowling lot as to how it defends it.
He made a couple of changes, resting wicketkeeper-opener KL Rahul and veteran all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin, bringing in wicketkeeper-opener Ishan Kishan and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. While he hinted at Kishan opening, he referred to Chahal as a champion bowler, having helped the side on countless instances.
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Meanwhile, for New Zealand, all-rounder Mitchell Santner was promoted as the stand-in skipper for this tie, as he reckoned, "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. The Indian openers have come out and built partnerships. We are not far away, and hopefully, we can put up a complete game today."
Playing XI
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal.
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert (wk), James Neesham, Mitchell Santner (c), Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi and Trent Boult.
