Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India]: India won the toss and opted to bowl first against New Zealand in the first T20I here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Wednesday. Venkatesh Iyer was handed his cap by India skipper Rohit Sharma and he will make his T20I debut in the first T20I. Speaking at the toss, Rohit said, “We will bowl first. The wicket looks good, thought behind is to have a score behind us, there was quite a lot of dew while practising from a couple of days. It’s been good, has been only 2 days, been a quick turnaround, back from Dubai, spent a couple of days and back here. But it’ll be good for the team. “We have Shreyas Iyer back, Venkatesh is debuting, Bhuvi, Siraj and Chahar are back. We’re playing three pacers and two spinners. We have one eye on the next World Cup, it’s a lot of time ahead, we’ll try our options, some results might not be immediate, but the process will be crucial,” he added. On the other hand, New Zealand stand-in captain Tim Southee said, “We’d have bowled as well, keeping dew factor in mind. Pretty disappointed at not winning the World Cup, but this is a great place to play cricket and the team is looking forward to it. Another chance to give chances – 4 changes for us – Neesham, KW, Sodhi and Milne miss out; Mark Chapman, Todd Astle and Lockie Ferguson are in.” India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj New Zealand Playing XI: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Tim Seifert(w), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee(c), Todd Astle, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult.
