New Zealand captain Michael Bracewell won the toss in Rajkot and, without much fuss, chose to bowl first. It ends India’s brief run of correct calls and flies in the face of the ground’s history – four matches here, four successful defences. New Zealand’s logic is straightforward enough: if dew settles, the ball should skid on and batting second becomes the more comfortable option.
India’s stand-in skipper Shubman Gill was not put out. “I would have batted first anyway. There wasn’t much dew when we trained yesterday,” he said with a shrug, adding that local inputs suggest the surface slows as the evening drags on.
Each side has made a single change. India were forced into theirs after Washington Sundar’s shoulder complaint. Nitish Kumar Reddy, already touring, steps in ahead of the uncapped Ayush Badoni, hinting that India are not expecting dramatic turn. The switch keeps left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh on the sidelines for another outing.
New Zealand’s alteration is tactical. Leg-spinner Adithya Ashok makes way for Jayden Lennox, a 23-year-old left-arm spinner whose List-A numbers – economy a shade over four, average a wicket-and-a-quarter per game – have impressed the visitors’ brains trust. Bowling coach Shane Jurgensen described Lennox as “accurate, unfazed and just about ready”, and the management clearly believes a different angle of spin is worth a look.
Gill brushed aside any concern about the early start. “It’s a fresh wicket, so runs are there if we’re patient,” he noted. Bracewell, for his part, kept it simple: “If the dew comes in, great. If not, we back ourselves with the ball.”
Playing XIs
India: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Hay (wk), Michael Bracewell (c), Zak Foulks, Kristian Clarke, Kyle Jamieson, Jayden Lennox.
A warm evening is forecast; if the dew does turn up, we will find out quickly enough whether Rajkot’s unbeaten chasing record is a quirk or the beginning of a trend.
