Rajkot: India, after the impressive show in Delhi would have a series win in mind while New Zealand would have to dig deep and work hard to claw back in the second T20I, scheduled to be held in Rajkot on Saturday.
Although the first T20I was all about the retirement of Ashish Nehra, the Indians did well in all departments of the game and quite rightly were the deserved winners. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan registered a massive 158-run opening partnership that took the fight out of the visitors. Adding to that, skipper Virat Kohli added to their woes through some big hits towards the end to take India past the 200-run mark.
They were equally good on the bowling front with Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar providing the initial breakthroughs. On the field too, they showed a lot of athletism and a brilliant testimony of the fact is Hardik Pandya’s stunning catch of the bowling of Chahal, that sent back the dangerous Martin Guptill.
Thus Virat Kohli and his men would really fancy their chances of a series win when they take on New Zealand in Rajkot. The visitors on the other hand were left outplayed in all departments as they failed to show some fight at all. But they would look forward to put up a better show with the T20I series at stake.
The batting has to be a bit more responsible with the likes of Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson and Colin Munro making significant contributions. The former number one T20I side who have been dethroned by Pakistan would thus hope of a victory to level things up at 1-1 in the three-match series.
For India, Mohammad Siraj might make his debut if India sticks to its six bowlers policy while Dinesh Karthik could be included if the team management decides to strengthen the batting.
Squads-
India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Henry Nicholls, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee