(Cricket news) After a washout in the 1st T20I in Wellington, the three-match T20I series has been reduced to a two-match affair. A change of venue to Mount Maunganui hopefully brings a change in fortune in the weather but there is forecast of rain for the second T20I too. India will be trying to find batters who are more naturally suited for T20 cricket, instead of asking some of the batters to bat against their natural style. This series will also be an audition for captain Hardik Pandya, who is being touted as a potential future leader in the T20 format.
It's difficult to gauge whether New Zealand are in a good place or worse when it comes to power-hitting. In hindsight they have got only two big hitters in Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips in but the likes of Devon Conway and Kane Williamson bat in the anchor mode. What the hosts would want is for Williamson to find his usual fluency and play attacking brand of cricket. Kane Williamson hasn't had a great time in T20 cricket in the last year or so, after a poor IPL, he scored 216 runs at a strike rate of 93.50 and then his struggles continued at the T20 World Cup as well. He only scored 178 runs in five innings with a strike rate of 116.33 which was below par.
India on the other hand are still trying to figure out how to get the best out of Rishabh Pant in the T20 format. Pant is someone that is tailor-made for T20 cricket and him not being able to nail a spot in the playing XI is quite perplexing. If he bats in the middle order, he is expected to attack straight away but his first-ten-balls strike rate is only 112.94 which paints a very different picture. If Pant doesn't open and continues to bat in the middle order then the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson and Deepak Hooda will be left fighting for one slot. In terms of spinners Yuzvendra Chahal or Kuldeep Yadav are likely to sit out as well.
Pitch conditions: The average first-innings total at the Bay Oval is 199. The spinners fare better in terms of economy rate as they concede at 8.05 per over as compared to 9.65 for fast bowlers. The previous T20I here was almost two years ago and that too was washed out. According to the weather forecast, rain could play a spoilsport once again.
New Zealand (probable XI)
1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 James Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Ish Sodhi, 10 Adam Milne, 11 Lockie Ferguson
India (probable XI)
1 Ishan Kishan, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Shreyas Iyer/Deepak Hooda, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya (capt), 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Also read: T20 World Cup fallout: BCCI sacks entire Chetan Sharma-led selection committee
