Kolkata (West Bengal) [India]: India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat against New Zealand in the third T20I here at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Sunday. Speaking at the toss, Rohit said, “We are going to bat first. Pitch looks a little sticky and we want to challenge ourselves as a batting unit. We gotta try various things and this is one of them. We want to put runs on the board and give the new set of bowlers a target to defend. KL and Ashwin are rested. Ishan and Chahal come in. We are very clear as to what we want to do that’s why Ishan has to wait for his opportunity, Chahal as well, he has been a champion bowler for us.” On the other hand, New Zealand stand-in captain Mitchell Santner said, “Last few games it has been wet because of the dew. There has been dew throughout. Whatever we do we have to do it well. We have been close, lost a couple of phases especially in the last game during the middle overs with the bat, we got off to a great start. But that’s just the way. The Indian openers have come out and built partnerships. We are not far away and hopefully, we can put up a complete game today. That’s (Southee) the only change.” Till now, India is with a 2-0 lead in the series. After this, the two teams meet in the first Test which starts from Thursday. India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal New Zealand Playing XI: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), James Neesham, Mitchell Santner(c), Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.
