New era beckons for India as they host New Zealand in T20I series

Overview

India vs New Zealand, 1st T20I
Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
17 November, 7 PM local time

Under a new coach and a new captain, India will be looking to hit the reset button with one eye on the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia.

With Virat Kohli making way for a new leader in T20I cricket and Ravi Shastri stepping down at the end of the World Cup, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid will be looking to steer India's new era in the shortest format of the game.

There are a few fresh faces in the squad while several familiar faces make a return as well. Including Rohit Sharma, only six players who were in the 15-man T20 World Cup squad have retained their places. The reserve players who travelled to the UAE - Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Axar Patel - all find a place in the squad.

Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel are in line to make their India debut while the likes Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj, who are currently on the fringes of the T20I setup, will be looking to a make case for themselves with the next World Cup not too far away.

New Zealand, on the other hand, have not had too much time to reflect on the loss to Australia in the final of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 but will be looking to put it behind them when they face India in Jaipur.

They will be without captain Kane Williamson for the T20I series, who has directly joined the Test specialist group training in Jaipur for the two-match Test series against India that will take place between 25 November and 7 December. Tim Southee will stand in as captain for the three games.

New Zealand have the majority of the squad that travelled to the UAE for the World Cup available to them. They have been further boosted by the return of Lockie Ferguson to the squad who had to pull out of the tournament last month due to a calf tear.

Remember the last time

India and New Zealand went head to head in the Super 12 stage of the recently concluded ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021.

Having lost their respective Group 2 opening game against Pakistan, both teams were in desperate need of a win. After being put in to bat first by New Zealand, India lost their way inside the Powerplay and were five down within 15 overs for just 73.

Some late resistance from Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja saved India the blushes as they limped to 110/7 in 20 overs. Trent Boult was the wrecker in chief with figures of 3/20 while Ish Sodhi once again proved to be a thorn in India's side, finishing 2/17 in four overs that included the huge wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

New Zealand cruised to a win without breaking a sweat. Daryl Mitchell, playing just his second match as an opener for New Zealand, fell just one run short of a half-century. Skipper Kane Williamson remained unbeaten on 33 as the Black Caps put their first points on board while India succumbed to their second loss.

What they said

KL Rahul on new India T20I captain Rohit Sharma: "There's nothing new about Rohit being captain. For as long as I can remember, he's been Mumbai Indians' captain, and his stats are there for everybody to see. He has a great understanding of the game and tactically he's really, really good, and that's why he's been able to achieve the kind of things that he has as a leader.

"We all enjoy watching Rohit bat and we all enjoy having him in the dressing room. He's a great guy to be around, so I'm sure he's excited and all of us in the team are excited to play under Rohit and he'll bring a lot of calm into the dressing room.

New Zealand head coach Gary Stead on Lockie Ferguson's fitness:"I think he is pretty close. We will just make sure we get over there, travel okay and there are no issues like seizing up on the flight or anything like that. But I’d expect that he’s going to be available for selection, which will be fantastic."