NZ vs IND 1st T20: Shreyas Iyer won the toss, India to bowl first

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India won the toss and elected to field against New Zealand in the first T20I at  Hagley Oval, Christchurch. The two teams will clash in a five-match T20I series followed by three ODIs and two Test matches.

After winning the toss, Indian captain Shreyas Iyer said he was happy to bowl first and chase down New Zealand’s total.

“Obviously a quick turnaround; want to have a fair idea about how the wicket will play, how much bounce it’s going to offer, and based on that we took this decision. [How has the team travelled?] I think pretty well. A lot of them took a while to get accustomed to the conditions and also the weather, the time difference especially. But no complaints. We are a bunch of professionals, and everybody knows that in the dressing room. We’ve got two changes. So Reddy comes in for Dube and Mayank comes in for Prince,” Shreyas Iyer said.

New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said he would have looked to bowl first too had he won the toss.

“We were going to bowl as well. Obviously, it’s a fresh pitch; it looks pretty good though, so we should get some runs. (On the playing XI) A couple of guys aren’t here, but I think the depth we have at the moment is really, really good. So we’ve got Duffy, KJ and Conway missing out, so similar make-up to India with four seamers. (On Bevon Jacobs) You know, he’s shown, I guess, what he can do for a period of time now. He’s obviously got the power and is a very good middle-order player. So it’s, I guess, a good series for him to, you know, I guess, test himself against a very good team on some good wickets.” Santner said.

Playing XI for both teams:

India (Playing XI): Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Mayank Yadav

New Zealand (Playing XI): Finn Allen, Tim Seifert(w), Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner(c), Nathan Smith, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson

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