Nagpur : 1st T20I ind v nz
At 7 pm
India captain Suryakumar Yadav has confirmed that Ishan Kishan, and not Shreyas Iyer, will take the place of the injured Tilak Varma. That leaves the question of who slots in at No. 8 between batting allrounder Shivam Dube and bowling allrounder Harshit Rana. If Nagpur provides a dry, grippy pitch such as the one these two teams played their T20 World Cup match on in 2016, India might think of playing both their wristb spinners.
India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Shreyas Iyer/Ishan Kishan, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Rinku Singh, 8 Harshit Rana/Shivam Dube, 9 Arshdeep Singh/Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
Michael Bracewell, who is recovering from the calf strain that kept him from bowling during the third ODI on Sunday, is an unlikely starter for New Zealand. Glenn Phillips, who missed New Zealand's last T20I series against West Indies because of a groin injury, should slot straight back into the XI. He will likely displace James Neesham, who could still feature in the eleven due to Bracewell's absence.
New Zealand (probable): 1 Tim Robinson, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 James Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner (capt), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Jacob Duffy
Pitch and conditions
Nagpur has one of the biggest outfields among Indian venues, and often has something in it for the spinners even in white-ball cricket. Of all grounds in India that have hosted at least five T20Is, spinners have the second-best average (20.82) at the VCA Stadium - behind only Dehradun, where India have never played and which has served as a home ground for Afghanistan - and the fourth-best economy rate (6.7).
The weather on Wednesday is expected to be pleasant and dry, with evening temperatures in the low 20s (Celsius).
Stats and trivia
These two teams have met once before in Nagpur, during the 2016 T20 World Cup, when New Zealand boldly left out their first-choice pace trio, picked three spinners, and bowled India out for 79.
Kuldeep Yadav (13.17) has the best average among all Full-Member bowlers with at least 50 T20I wickets.
The top seven in that list are all spinners, with Varun Chakravarthy in fifth place at 14.87.
Lockie Ferguson (17.00), who could join New Zealand's squad towards the back end of this series, and Jacob Duffy (17.05) are among the three best-averaging fast bowlers, with only Umar Gul (16.97) above them.
Hardik Pandya is one of only five allrounders to complete the Men's T20I double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets.
Glenn Phillips is 71 runs away from becoming the fourth New Zealand batter to 2000 in Men's T20Is.
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