CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand: India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl in the first T20 cricket international against New Zealand at Hagley Oval on Thursday.
The India squad only arrived in New Zealand two days ago and has had little time to acclimatize before the first match in a long tour involving five T20s, five one-day internationals and two test matches.
“We have no complaints,” Iyer said. “We're a band of professionals and everyone knows that in the dressing room.”
India has made two changes to the team which faced the West Indies in the last of five T20 internationals a week ago. India won the first and third T20s of that series by eight wickets and 14 runs, but each time West Indies bounced back.
Mayank Yadav comes in for Prince Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy replaces Shivam Dube.
New Zealand has chosen four seamers — Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson — and three spinners — Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh are likely to share the new ball for India.
The teams last met in the T20 World Cup final in India, which India won by 96 runs.
Lineups:
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (captain), Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson.
India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh.