New Zealand and India will play three T20Is on Jan 27, 29 and Feb 1.
The Men in Blue side will be without their premier players in Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammad Shami, etc who were part of the 3-0 whitewash of the New Zealand side in the recent ODI series.
The T20I series will see Hardik Pandya back as captain of the side and many of the fringe players will be also seen in action who was instrumental in India’s last T20I series win over Sri Lanka at home recently.
Keeping this in mind, here is the COC Predicted Team India XI for the first T20I vs New Zealand in Ranchi.
Shubman Gill had made his T20I debut in the Sri Lanka series and had a lull outing by his standards. However, a lot has changed since then as he had a blockbuster ODI series against New Zealand and will now have more confidence in T20Is.
His opening partner is most likely to be hometown boy Ishan Kishan, who will also keep wickets. Kishan has been looked at as the new aggressive opening option for India going forward and he would like to perform to justify the backing he is getting.
Rahul Tripathi showcased his amazing ability to maximize the powerplay in the Sri Lanka T20Is and it will be hoped that he does the same against New Zealand at no.3. Suryakumar Yadav had a lull New Zealand ODI series and it will be expected that he comes good in T20Is which is considered to be his forte.
Skipper Hardik Pandya along with Deepak Hooda might be the finishers for the Men in Blue with Hooda’s off-spin being an option as well.
As for genuine spinners, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal are at the disposal of the Indian team management to choose from. Sundar might get the nod as one of the spinners given that he extends the batting lineup as well, while it can be a toss-up between Chahal and Kuldeep as the second spinner.
Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Mavi, and Umran Malik had done extremely well against Sri Lanka, and expect them to rattle the New Zealand batting as well, who will also have some batters who didn’t do well in ODIs and some new faces.
COC Predicted Team India Playing XI for the first T20I:
Ishan Kishan (WK), Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (C), Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal