Interim captain Ajinkya Rahane opted to bat after India won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against New Zealand at the Confederates on Thursday. Shreyas Iyer is making his Test debut with this match. And what about the head-to-head records between India and New Zealand? The two teams have met in 34 Tests so far. The Kiwis have won just two Tests.
Regular captain Virat Kohli, senior openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul along with top fast bowlers Mohammad Shami, Jaspreet Bumra and Shardul Thakur are out for the match. With that .. what kind of performance will Team India show in this match? The interest in being is ubiquitous. Ajinkya Rahane picked the final team with a combination of three spinners and two pacers, as records show that the Kanpur pitch is conducive to spin. The last Test match was played here in 2016. In that match, Ashwin and Jadeja took 16 wickets together.
India (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (w), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav
New Zealand (Playing XI): Tom Latham, Will Young, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell (w), Rachin Ravindra, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, Kyle Jamieson, William Somerville
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