IND vs NZ: Weather Forecast and Pitch Report of Sawai Mansingh Stadium, New Zealand tour of India 2021, 1st T20I

India and New Zealand will square up against each other in a three-match T20 series, starting 17^th November 2021. Both teams had contrasting fortunes in the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup 2021. Team India made an early exit and were at the receiving end of a lot of criticism from its fans.

For those of you who don’t know, it was Virat Kohli’s last T20 tournament as captain. He won’t lead the Indian Cricket Team in T20 internationals and has also been rested for the upcoming three-match T20 series against New Zealand.

Rohit Sharma is the new captain of the Indian Cricket Team in the T20 internationals, while KL Rahul will be the vice-captain. For the three-match series, the likes of Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Rahul Chahar, and Varun Chakravarthy have also been excluded from the squad for different reasons.

Young rising stars such as Venkatesh Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been selected for the series. In the absence of Hardik Pandya, Iyer is likely to play all three games, while Gaikwad has been selected as the backup opener.

Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, and Ishan Kishan will make their presence felt in the middle order, while Shreyas Iyer also marks his return in the T20 squad. Interestingly, Yuzvendra Chahal has also been selected in the T20 squad after being missed out on the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 squad.

New Zealand, on the other hand, are coming off a successful T20 World Cup campaign. Telling performances in the super 12 stage helped them reach the semis. They went on to beat England in the semi-final and met Australia in the final.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t win the title as they lost to Aussies by 8 wickets in the final. New Zealand, though, won’t have time to introspect what went wrong as they will play the first of the three-match T20 series against India on Wednesday. In a big development, Kane Williamson has been rested for the series and Tim Southee will lead the team in his absence.

Southee would continue to lead the pace-bowling department, which also comprises the likes of Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson, and Adam Milne.

As for the spin, Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi would be the biggest bets. Both have an outstanding record against India and it will be interesting to see how they bowl in the upcoming series. Daryl Mitchell and Martin Guptill should open the innings, while the middle order is comprised of the likes of Glenn Phillips, Tim Siefert and Jimmy Neesham etc.

IND vs NZ: Weather Forecast and Pitch Report of Sawai Mansingh Stadium , New Zealand tour of India 2021, 1st T20I

According to a report by the Times of India, a high-scoring pitch is being prepared for the first T20 international between India and New Zealand. The last time India played here was eight years ago.

India though have a great record on this ground. They have managed to win 8 out of 12 ODIs played here. Also, the due to is going to set in right from the first innings itself, and therefore, the toss will have little value. Both are likely to bowl first upon winning the toss.