India won the toss and opted to bowl first in the first T20I vs New Zealand
India have made two changes in the squad
Check India and New Zealand's playing XI for the first T20I
India have won the toss and opted to bowl first against New Zealand in the 1st T20I at Hagley Oval on Thursday. Bhuvneshwar Kumar retains his place after returning to the team after four years against West Indies.
However, there are two changes in the Indian team with Mayank Yadav and Nitish Kumar Reddy returning to the side. Prince Yadav and Shivam Dube have been benched for the game.
Shreyas Iyer said he wanted to assess the bounce, before India go to bat so the management decided that bowling would be ideal.
Shreyas said: "Obviously a quick turnaround, want to have fair idea about how the wicket will play, how much the bounce it's going to offer, and based on that we took this decision," Said Shreyas.
"[How has the team travelled?] I think pretty well. A lot of them, they 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," added Shreyas.
"[Takeaways from the WI series] Well, a lot of positives, honestly, especially in our batting. I think scoring 230, 250 in almost every alternate game, it was a plus for us. And also bowling-wise, it wasn't easy to bowl on smaller ground and flat wickets, but boys showed a lot of character and that is the same attitude and approach we want to come here with. We've got two changes. So Reddy comes in for Dube and Mayank comes in for Prince," Shreyas concluded.
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
