Auckland: India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bowl in the first T20I against New Zealand at Eden Park here on Friday.
India dropped Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Navdeep Saini from the playing XI. This means KL Rahul will keep the wickets for India.
The Kiwis are hosting India for the five-match T20I series, followed by three-ODIs and two Tests. India recently won the home ODI series against Australia 2-1.
For the hosts, Hamish Bennett will make his debut in the shortest format of the game.
India’s T20I squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Shivam Dube, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, and Shardul Thakur.
New Zealand T20I squad: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Tim Seifert (wk), Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, and Hamish Bennett.