Toss India opt to bat vs New Zealand
The returning Virat Kohli chose to bat after wet patches at the Wankhede Stadium, caused by overnight rain, washed out the morning session. Ajinkya Rahane, who had stood in as captain in the Kanpur Test, was sidelined from this game with injury, as were Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja. Kohli aside, a fit-again Mohammed Siraj and Jayant Yadav came into India's XI.
New Zealand, too, were depleted after their regular captain Kane Williamson was ruled out with elbow injury.
Before Friday, Jayant last played a first-class match in February 2020 and last played a Test match in February 2017.
Rahane was sidelined with a hamstring strain sustained while fielding on the final day of the Kanpur Test while Ishant had dislocated his finger in the same match. As for Jadeja, Kohli said the allrounder "couldn't pick up the bat" because of a swollen arm.
The elbow has been a long-standing issue for Williamson in recent times and it most recently flared up in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup in the UAE. According to New Zealand head coach Gary Stead, it flared up again now and could put him out of action for a "substantial period."
Tom Latham, who took over captaincy from Williamson, said that New Zealand would have liked to bat first too. The visitors picked Canterbury batting allrounder Daryl Mitchell ahead of Glenn Phillips to replace Williamson in the XI. However, there was still no place for left-arm quick Neil Wagner, with New Zealand leaning towards three spin options again in Ajaz Patel, Will Somerville and Rachin Ravindra.
Seventy-eight overs are scheduled to be bowled today, weather and light permitting.
India: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Shreyas Iyer, 6 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 7 R Ashwin, 8 Jayant Yadav, 9 Axar Patel, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand: 1 Will Young, 2 Tom Latham (capt), 3 Daryl Mitchell, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Rachin Ravindra, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Will Somerville, 11 Ajaz Patel
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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